Friday, March 6, 2009

The first signs of spring

The Drama Queen is sitting under the bird-feeder with a napkin tied around her neck and a fork in her paw.

Metaphorically speaking, of course. It has been sunny but cold and windy for the past week and today is beautiful. I think we may have the annual ceremonial unveiling of the grill this evening. Since the temperature has been pretty clement, the door has been open to allow the livestock in and out of the back yard. But with the spring come new perils.

Reserve Cat got caught in a plastic shopping bag out in the alley yesterday and managed to wrap the handles around his neck. I have no way of knowing how long he tried to fight free of it but at some point he got spooked and ran.

The snapping, rattling monster followed, hanging onto him like Superman’s cape. He got himself back over the fence and through the doggie door into the house where he tried to hide from it under the spare-room bed BUT HE STILL COULDN’T GET AWAY!

I nipped in behind him, closed the door, and even though he was terrified he didn’t claw me when I picked him up. I got the bag off him and then held his poor shaking body until he calmed down.


He was very subdued for the rest of the afternoon and stayed curled up in the linen closet, which is one of his Happy Places. I wasn't too chipper about the incident, either. We try to keep our yard cleaned up but we can't police the whole town.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nothing more funny and frightening at the same time as a cat with a plastic cape...the first time one of ours did this trick, I laughed. Then I cuddled. Now I know to cuddle first then go and laugh.

Amy said...

aren't cats funny with the places they like to sleep, my old black basement cat took refuge on the videomachine last week when we had a storm come through :-)

Lydia said...

Poor Reserve Cat!

People don't think (or care) how a simple careless action such as letting a bag drop to the ground could cause such discomfort for someone else.

I'm so glad you got him out of that before anything bad happened.

*pat*pat*

Shay said...

"mew, mew"

(speaking for Reserve Cat).

Rochelle R. said...

Poor guy that must have been scary. Around here you sometimes hear reminders to keep plastic bags away from the beach, bay etc. as they are very harmful to sealife if they try to eat them or get tangled in them.

Unknown said...

ROFLOL! I had a cat that had that same plastic bag thing happen to him. As much as I understood the poor kitty's fear I couldn't help but laugh because it was the funniest thing I ever saw...him trying to run away from the plastic bag that had gotten it's handles around his neck. He finally let me get it off him, but I had to chase him all over the house and crawl into a closet where he had confined himself, LOL! Oh, Memories! Thanks for the chuckle! :)

T-Mom said...

Poor Reserve Cat! I hope he's feeling more secure. Those Plastic Bag Monsters are very scary, not to mention dangerous!