Friday, October 23, 2009

Escape! Escape!

Well, there was a little excitement around here last night! Leo tried to introduce himself to Treelo a little earlier than planned!

I decided our two new kittehs had been cooped up long enough, so I hatched a plan to let them out so they could explore most of the upstairs area of the house. Given the configuration of the hallway I could block off the kitty gate at the top of the stairs and put Hubbard in the master bedroom and close the door. So, I set up a seven-foot tall "wall" of moving boxes to block off the hallway and figured that would be ok for their outing. Wrong-o, moose-breath!

It took Leo less than ten minutes to figure out how to circumvent the box blockade, and he then very quickly and quietly jumped over the 48-inch high gate without me seeing him. I was watching Rocky at the time, and the only thing that worked in my favor is I heard an ever-so-slight rattle from the gate as Leo cleared it. So, I hurriedly put Rocky back in the guest room, and went after Leo.

After getting downstairs, I could see neither Leo or Treelo. So, I started calling. I walked over and turned on the light in the living room, and here is Treelo under the coffee table, hunched down, ears back, and she starts growling. I followed her gaze and found Leo sitting in the dining room, next to the sliding glass door that goes out to our sunroom. Oh, joy.

So I quickly grabbed Leo and threw him over my shoulder. He immediately dug all his front claws into my skin and began hissing angrily. I then hot-footed it through the living room, avoiding stepping on Treelo, who is by now following me trying to get to Leo. I managed to make it up the stairs and through the gate with Leo clamped to my shoulder, hissing all the way.

As I opened the door to the guest room, Rocky makes a break for it. I threw Leo on the bed by the door and just managed to catch Rocky by the tail. After another short struggle, I had them both back in the guest room.

Then, it was time for damage control. Checked in on Hubbard...he's sleeping on the bed...good. Went downstairs and started looking for Treelo. After calling her a couple of times, she very cautiously looks around the corner of the couch in the family room, and on seeing me, comes trotting over wanting loves and reassurance. Ok, that could have been worse. So, I sit down with her on the couch for a while and pet her until she falls asleep. Then I head upstairs to see how the boys are fairing. They both are very happy to see me, and both want loves and skritches just like normal. Whew! Looks like I avoided a nasty "incident" this time.

So, I went downstairs and poured myself a double scotch. *grin*

I'm now working on a better way to block off the gate, so they can't get downstairs anymore until formal introductions are in order!

3 comments:

  1. ROFL!!! (Almost literally... )

    Oh, Sundown, it's so nice to see others occasionally underestimate the resourcefullness of their furbabes!

    Sorry I didn't catch this earlier! (Dad came up from FL for nephew's wedding and I've been off-blog for a week now.) Dad was cautioned NOT to let Grey out of, or the others into, the quarantine suite (aka, Dad's bedroom), but he kept forgetting to shut the door. *sigh* This time, it actually turned out OK... some hissing, some running from rooms, but no chasing or overt agression.

    BUT... been there, done that, with keeping startled kittehs, introduced before their time, apart!! Barely escaped with my skin the first time Annie and Aggie accidentally met! :-)

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  2. Ok, don't feel too bad - we tried to set up a cardboard gate for Virgil when he was little - it worked for a few days and then he learned to jump it or knock it down, and we tried a cardboard gate to keep the cats upstairs while the floors in our house were redone - one got all the way past (and was totally traumatized for a few days after) and one almost snuck past. We have cardboard on our stair railings right now to keep them from going over the side - they got part of those off (luckily down by the lower steps) and are trying to eat the rest, and I could go on and on. The tiny ones are sneaky - if you haven't had one for a while (and for us the most recent gap was 9 months and even that was enough to forget) then you forget they can fit in very tiny spots (plus the little ones are somehow super slippery). We ended up with our most recent kitten introduction much sooner then planned too - but ours was because of a power outage - the kitten room got really HOT! But they are usually not too traumatic for most of those involved (mabye a bit for me) when it does happen!

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  3. We can haz more kittehs, pleeze?

    Looking forward to updates on Hubbard, Treelo, Rocky and Leo!! How's everyone doing? (OK, and you two beans, too!)

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