Cat Burglar!

“Howard, what was that?” I exclaimed as I was startled from the edge of sleep. “I heard a door creak open!” I shook him with a harsh whisper. We listened for a moment and thought maybe it was the cat or dog coming in the cat door from outside. “Did you leave our door open?” I wondered as he got up stealthily.

He said he had closed the door. Well, it must not have been too firmly, because after we had lain back down, something plopped on the bed. The cat! It had pushed the door open and had been hiding under the bed!

Now this morning I awake to loud mewing and scratching on the other side of the door as he attempts to enter. That is the most persistent cat! He is my granddaughter’s beloved pet, but I am not much of a cat person. Still, I am the one he seems to want to glue himself to since we came to live with them.

A couple of nights ago he burst from our bedroom closet, which has two folding doors. The curious thing about the closet is that it is also accessible from the hall. “Was the hall closet door left open?” I demanded of my husband, yet knowing that if there is the slightest crack, an eager paw can force a feline entry through a folding door.

It is not a difficult task for “Sunshine” to push against the folds from the inside, but this morning when I was in the bathroom, I found he can also niggle a tiny crack into a paw-size opening from the other side of the door. Then, wedging his considerable Garfield-weight against it, he is in.

He reminds me of a cat, Gatsby, we used to have that would stalk outside our bedroom door in the morning meowing, “Howwaard, Theowlmaa,” until we put him outside. I’m sure it won’t be long until this one learns our names, too!

During our Gatsby days, I would often see our cat staring intently for long minutes at the base of a big tree near our deck. I later realized that a cat’s eyes are like vertical slits that can see upward without their ever moving their head. Gatsby was watching a bird, who would eventually hop to the ground for a speck of food it had spotted. Then the unwary bird would become cat food.

The Bible warns us, “Be sober, be vigilant’ because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” I Peter 5:8. A lion is just a big cat!