The Great Escape!!!

Marianne and I got back from our anniversary weekend celebration, both very tired and just generally worn out. As a rule, with several exceptions, I would rather have the windows open than run the air conditioning, so I proceeded to turn off the a/c and open all of the windows in the house. I figure we only get about 3 months of weather in Upstate NY that we can open the windows, so I am going to take advantage of every day that I can.

Marianne decided to go upstairs and lie down for a while. I planned to do the same after posting my morning golf score and checking the latest batch of humorous emails from my father.

Well, here I sit, in the front window, merrily clicking away at emails and golf-handicap sites. All of a sudden, I realize the house is too quiet. Then I hear the all-too-familiar jingle-jingle of Pete's collar and dog tags. He's outside the front of the townhouse!! He's merrily sniffing and marking his way across the neighborhood. My thoughts immediately run to, "How in the heck did he get out? Did he tear through a screen?" I then noticed exactly how he got out. Apparently, when I opened the sliding glass door off the dining room, I failed to close the screen door. (Boy, I must be tired!)

I headed to the dining room to rectify my error. When I looked outside, I saw this calico colored fur ball looking up at me from the edge of the patio. Great! It's a mass escape! I was just beginning to assess how I was going to corral Pixie into the house when I see a chubby gray fuzz ball come trotting up behind her. Piper! She pranced past Pixie and up the stairs into the house. Well, that's a good start: one down, two to go.

The look on Pixie's face was one of pure terror. I don't know if she was terrified by the fact that she was outside or if she thought she was in trouble. Either way, the look was priceless. I called her, gently, and she apparently realized that the best plan of action was to get inside and pronto! I guess I just reaped the benefits of having indoor cats. They really don't want to be outside...at least not for any length of time. That was easy: two down and the most difficult one to go.

I followed the cats back in the house and closed the screen door securely this time. I put on my shoes and proceeded to chase Pete around the neighborhood. I really think he likes this game. That makes one of us. Usually, when I get close to catching Pete, I try to grab him by the collar. That usually results in several near-misses. (Shouldn't they be called 'near-hits'? I don't know.) I was tired and didn't want to play this game any longer, so I was playing No More Mr. Nice Dad. He stopped a little too long at one of his favorite lamp posts, so I seized the opportunity to grab his big, fluffy tail. That worked! He tried to pull away once, but didn't like that very much. He decided to sit still while I got a grip on his collar. The walk home was, thankfully, uneventful.

Once everyone was safely back inside, I sat down and assessed the situation. The best I can come up with is this: Pete realized he had a path of escape, so decided to follow it. The cats tend to hang out by the back door (that's where the litter boxes are...and not too far from food and water) so they saw him leave. The cats really love their dog, though they won't admit it, so I think they decided to follow him and see what he was up to. I really don't know if this was a joint decision, or Pixie decided to follow him and Piper figured she'd follow along out of curiosity. I guess we'll never know. As Pete headed around the west end of the townhouses, I think it entered the cat's minds that they were no longer in familiar territory and decided to head back.

It's kind of funny how life teaches you little lessons. Sometimes, life stomps you real good when you screw up. Other times, it just throws a minor inconvenience at you at an inopportune time. I would rate this incident as one of the latter. Okay, I get it. From now on, I need to make sure that I have all of the screens in place if I am going to open up the house for ventilation.