Georgina thought I looked like Sandy the squirrel from Spongebob Squarepants in my picture yesterday. I can see the resemblance.
Fred, however, thinks I look like someone else entirely…
I’m sad to say, I agree.
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Hey, look what was waiting for me at the post office this morning!
It was created by the owner of
this cool site, and you can
order your very own!
Man, I’m totally going to order some of those for Christmas next year. Also, Valentine’s Day is coming up. Hmm….
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Speaking of Hawaii, did I mention that my parents are going to Hawaii again? My father leaves at the beginning of February, and my mother’s going over two weeks after that. They’ll be there about three months.
I’m not going this time – the flight would kill me. I can’t take another 12 hours in a plane! – but seeing pictures like
this sure does make it tempting!
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Yesterday marked one year since Tubby died. It seems like it’s been longer, but it also seems like it just happened.
We sure do miss that cat.
For a little while we thought we were going to mark the occasion by losing another cat – Mister Boogers, to be exact.
Mister Boogers recently figured out that he could jump the fence. We found this out a couple of weeks ago as we were sitting in the computer room, turned around so we were facing each other. Fred had offered me a bite of his Ben & Jerry’s (it being a Friday and all) and I had just put a spoon full of Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch in my mouth when I glanced out the window and saw Mister Boogers casually slinking through the front flower bed.
All the color drained out of my face, I’m sure, and my jaw dropped, and I shoved the pint of ice cream back at Fred and went flying out the front door. Fred followed as I chased Mister Boogers across the front of the house and told me to go back in the house. Mister Boogers ducked under my Jeep, and then rubbed his head on the muffler when Fred spoke to him, and eventually came out to be picked up, scolded, and carried back into the house.
We spent the rest of the afternoon (well Fred did, anyway) looking up ideas on how to keep cats in the yard when they’ve figured out how to jump the fence. He finally came across this cat fencing stuff that is, basically, just netting that goes across the top of the fence, with brackets every so often to hold the netting out. The cat jumps up and gets repelled by the netting, and voila! Can’t get out of the yard.
So instead of paying way too much for the “official” cat fence, Fred went to Lowe’s and bought netting, some brackets, and a staple gun. He put it across the top of the fence going from our house to the neighbor’s part of the fence, and then along the side fence that separates our yard from the neighbor’s. Since the side fence actually belongs to the neighbors, he didn’t put any brackets up, because he needed to make sure it was okay with them.
We let Mister Boogers (and the other cats) out a few times and everything seemed to be okay, until one afternoon this week when I stepped out into the back yard to check on Mister Boogers, and when I glanced over toward the fence between our yard and the neighbor’s yard, Mister Boogers was sitting atop the fence. When he saw me, he jumped down and ran into the house, because he KNEW he wasn’t supposed to be doing that.
We kept the cat door closed for a few days, and then one day Fred opened the cat door and watched to see what Mister Boogers would do, and then he discovered how Mister Boogers was going through a gap in the fence between our yard and the neighbor’s yard, a gap we’d thought was too small for any of the cats to fit through.
So Fred stapled some netting along the gap, and a few days later Mister Boogers managed to get into the neighbor’s back yard again, and Fred decided he hadn’t covered the gap enough, so he stapled some more netting over the gap.
Which brings us to yesterday evening, when Fred went to the doc-in-a-box to see about
his toe. As soon as Fred left, I heard the cat door swinging as Mister Boogers went outside, but I didn’t think anything about it. I ate dinner and goofed around online, and when it had been about 45 minutes, I went out back to check on him.
And the fucker was nowhere to be seen.
I took the flashlight out with me, and a toy, and I shook the toy (which makes a rattling sound) and I called and called and called for the Booger, but nothing. Nada. Zilch.
I called the spud downstairs and told her to occasionally go out into the back yard to call for him, because I was going to drive around to the back of the fence (you have to drive out of the neighborhood to get to the back of our fence) and see if I could spot him. I got to the end of the street and saw some glittering eyes going across someone’s front yard and I thought for a moment “How the FUCK did he get all the way down here?” before I realized that it was a cat with a tail rather than a stump, so couldn’t be our Booger.
I drove around the neighborhood and down the road that runs along our back fence, and didn’t see a thing. When I got home, Fred was home, out in the back yard calling for the Booger.
Nada.
Fred walked around the front of the house and called for him, and I walked around the back yard and called, and still nothing. We finally decided to drive around to the back of the fence and park and walk along the road to the culvert a few houses down, and call for him.
We spent about ten minutes calling for him, and I had just gotten back into the car while Fred looked a little more, when my cell phone rang and the spud was calling to tell me that the Booger had come home.
As soon as we got home, we shut the cat door, which pissed off Mister Boogers, who spent the evening howling and jumping on the other cats, and smacking at the blinds on the door to the back yard. At this point we’re trying to figure out what exactly we want to do, but I feel bad that none of the cats can go outside just because Mister Boogers is a fuckhead.
If nothing else, having Fancypants run away was a good lesson for us. We thought he’d be okay, because he could take care of himself. With Mister Boogers, we know better. I’d rather have him in the house and miserable than let him out and have him go missing.
Besides, he has such a tiny brain that I bet after about three days he’ll forget he was ever allowed out into the back yard at all.
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“Lemme out! Lemme out! I want OUT!”
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Oh Robyn, I am so sorry that Mr. boogers is being such a butthead. So scary! Hope you get this figured out and that little stinker learns to stay in the yard.
De-lurking once more to say — how is the fence connected to your house? How is the cat-proofing set there? Because we had the same set-up (although we paid for the expensive deal since we are not DIYers). Both girls stayed in the yard, but Mr. Harley figured out a way to jump from the heat pump (about 6′ from the fence) to the top of the fence by aiming at the house. He would jump up and towards the house at an angle, then push off from the house to the top of the fence, going over the netting. We ended up not being able to let him out with out supervision.
And they are called “dumb animals” Ha!
Cats are real hard to foil, dogs are a bit easier to baffle. I’ve seen 13″ beagle climb fences to get loose. The beagle even got out of a trailer by opening the cabinet that has the crawl space to the outside.
Grace: I think what he’s doing is jumping up onto the fence facing the street, in the back, and walking along it to jump into the neighbor’s back yard. I think our mistake was in believing that he wouldn’t do that because of all the scary traffic – but clearly he’s too dumb to be scared of the traffic! 🙂
Robyn,
Good luck on trying to make Mister Boogers forget the freedom of the great outdoors. I doubt you’ll suceed and cats have the ability to whine, moan and otherwise piss you off until you give in and let them out side.
One suggestion I have is to put bean on a leash. My parents tied out their cat everytime. He had a long tie out leash and they put it on a little pole my dad inserted in the ground so it could turn in a 360 degree circle. Bean may hate the hell out of it and you might have to train him – put him on it for 10 minutes several times a day, but he will get used to it. He will evidently realize it’s better than nothing. Of course, the cat door is a goner, but at least you feel safe that Bean isn’t where he should not be.
I miss Tubby! I thought about him at Christmas when I put my Tubby ornament on my tree. Glad that Meester Boogers is okay.
put an e-collar on him for a week or so. he’ll bump himself into everything, but especially the edges of the cat door, and he’ll stop trying! muahahaha.
How about one of those netlike cat tunnels for outdoors? I’ve seen those, and they are not too expensive. You could attach it temporarily to the cat-door, so the cats could go outside, lie in the sun, whatever…and then come back indoors. Then you could detach the netting till the next day.
I have several cats, all lived on a special indoor sunporch most of the time in town. We moved to the country, and first thing, here comes a stray female, had kittens, the whole nine yards. Long story short (too late!) I eventually found homes for the kittens, except for one I kept and the mama — you guessed it, now indoors too. I just can’t live with the anxiety/worry about one of cats being smashed on this country road, where the cars whiz past. By the way, the mama cat HAS adjusted to being indoors, though it took several weeks.
Good luck with Booger. You’ll figure out something, I’m sure.
Awww… Tubby looks like he was the most huggable sweetie ever!
That rascal Boogers!!!
Robyn, don’t you live in a suburby neighborhood where you have to get permission to cut your grass a different way? Won’t these cat nets piss off the resident’s association or something or is it just your immediate neighbors you have to worry about?
And was does this getup look like? It sounds really ugly and more trouble than it’s worth.
Dez: We do live in a subdivision, but strangely there aren’t the stringent rules like we had in the subdivision where we previously lived. You can’t actually see the cat fence from outside the yard, though – it’s attached toward the top. I’ll have to take a picture to show what it looks like, it’s hard to describe. It’s not too horrible looking, but I think at the moment we’re leaning toward keeping the cat door shut until we come up with a better solution. Poor Mister Boogers. He’s doing his very best “I’m so depressed. I just want to go outside. ::sob!::” act at the moment. Do I feel sorry for him? NO. The little bastard.
Geesh! You would think Mister Boogers would know he has it made in the shade there with you guys and not be trying to do all that crazy roaming. Nice house with good eats. Nice yard with a bird feeder. Geesh!
That picture of Meeester Boogers looks like he’s plotting sumptin. Be veeeetty afraid!
I forgot how big Tubby was! I miss that kitty.
Uh-oh, sounds like Meester Boogers has the Outdoor Crazies. One of my boys got it a few years ago, and boy was he a FREAK when we locked him in! Acting all like he was the Badass Cat when he was inside. Also, I think that is the BEST pic of Tubby! So very sweet!
Robyn, Sorry about the Booger trying to go AWOL all the time. My mom has 7 cats in her house and none go outside EVER. She is too attached to them to have them run away. So they have run over the ENTIRE HOUSE. They have a lot of playroom and so on…so there are no worries 🙂 I am sure the Booger will get over it. In time.
1 year…seems like I read that only yesterday he was gone. So sad. Poor Tubby.
Mom’s cat Twiggy is a lot like Tubby…I am hoping he isn’t too fat and have a heartattack or something!
Damnit! A Tubby pic! Without warning! SOB!
BTW,while the coconut is cool, this idea has been around awhile.
I am, uh, nearly 37, and when I was 5 my Aunt and Uncle who live in Honolulu (still to this day) mailed me one with me name written in Sharpie marker and the stamps stuck on it.
I kept it for at least 20 years and Lord knows what happened to it in my adulthood, someone probably got drunk at one of my parties and tried to crack it open is my guess. 😉 Ahh..those were the days..
I have to say it, if Fred wouldn’t of posted the other pics first, I would of clearly thought his site was going X rated!! HEE!!
We have a non-fenced yard and two cats that are constantly breakin’ free and running out the door in the summer months. (They take advantage of our five year old not being quick on the draw when opening/closing the door.)
So we solved the problem by letting them out on really long cat leashes. We acutally used very slim and light weight rope almost like climbing rope from our local sporting goods/surplus store since we couldn’t find a long enough leash that wasn’t going to be too heavy for them.
So they have these 15 foot leashes that cost us about $1.00 total. Our older, more staid cat gets her leash clipped to the heavy duty shepard’s crook and our Mr. Boogers look alike gets her leash clipped to the railing by the back door. They are happy, we are happy and all is well. 🙂
If I could rig up a cat run type thing I would, but the neighbors probably think I am crazy enough with two cats out on leashes.
Hope this helps. 🙂
Robyn, do you or anyone else know about the cat net like tunnels that one poster mentioned?? I have two cats and one of them is always trying to escape… I’d love to have one of those thingies if its like I imagine it to be….
I can’t believe that Tubby has already been gone an entire year. It seems just like yesterday. He was one he– of a kitty. I know your going to have a hard time keeping Mister Boogers in the house. It will probably take a really long time before he gets over not being able to go outside. Good luck!!
Has Meester Boogers been neutered? I don’t know if that would help anyway. They like to roam no matter what I think. I like the long leash idea. I would think he would fight it for quite awhile though.
FYI – the cat fence is at catfence.com. Tunnels (portable outdoor enclosures) are at drsfostersmith.com although you may be able to find them cheaper with a search. When I lived in Huntsville the Neighborhood Nazis didn’t so much care if changes to your house (fence, paint, etc.) couldn’t be seen from the street. In Houston they do care vary much – so anyone who’s wanting to do the fence thing should probably check with their POA.