Man, oh man. I don't recall Lennon and McCartney the Cats ever being so complicated. In two weeks of having cats again we've already experienced probably 2 months of complication.
Take today, for instance. Tom arrived home from buying a printer at Target (remember, ours bit the dust a week ago, which has meant a vacation for me from coupons, which, ok, has been kinda nice). So anyway, he rang that doorbell thingy I told you about from the car so I ran down the stairs, then out the backdoor, making sure I unlocked the door on my way out.
Well, I carried the bag with the printer back to the house and Tom opened the door, except that he could only open it two inches. Oh dear! That darn ol' Daniel The Cat had taken that short moment of my being outside to sneak down to the basement, knocking the board we had across the basement doorway just far enough back to where it wedged against our back door and the interior wall.
There was no getting inside that way and though our front door was opened, the storm door was locked. And neither of us had ever added that storm door key to our key chains, though you can bet we've done that now.
&^%*$#@
So Tom said, "What about a window?" and instantly we both remembered that the window of the front bedroom (where we must keep Sammy until he stops trying to tear Daniel apart) was fully opened (the only other unlocked windows were the small ones upstairs).
Thank-goodness Sammy loves to sit in that opened window in his room. So I ran around to the front porch, lifted the screen in that bedroom window, then crawled inside, let Tom in, then took that board down to the basement where it will stay, now that the weather is nice and we can leave that basement accordion door opened all the time, which we might as well, since Daniel's always trying to get down there anyway. (And yes, we'd already made a search of the basement to make certain it's safe for him.)
Oh, how I crave simplicity. And I'll do just about anything to get it.
But I also love these silly nuisance cats, so sacrifices must be made when you desire two polar opposite things--and the test comes in not complaining about these sacrifices, but rather, accepting them and accepting more Grace so to deal with them. And just doing the best you can, using your imagination if that will help, too.
Fortunately. Tom and I watch Daniel learning to be more obedient every day and that encourages us to keep on being consistent, even if it means getting up from the couch over and over to remove him from the table and place him on the window sill, instead, while saying, "Window, window, window." And what we saw earlier today? Daniel jumped up on the table--but when I said "Window, window" from the couch--he moved to the window, himself. I didn't even have to get up.
Ah, progress. And maybe someday we'll actually have some simplicity like the good ol' days, too. :)
***************
And the top photo is not of Daniel, it just looks like him a bit. I'm finding myself rather too tired to go around chasing him with the camera right now, what with crawling in through windows and everything..... heh...
*************