The Last Place the Cats Are Supposed to Be

                Finny the Friendly almost climbed into a mini-van waiting in front of the house for a piano student.  The student’s family is cat-friendly so I suppose if he had, the kids in the back seat would have entertained him until the mom discovered him and came back.  Fortunately I saw Finn before he made it into the side door.       

                It’s not the first vehicle entry he’s attempted this year.  A few months ago my parents were visiting.  As we watched out the window, Finny jumped on the hood of Dad’s pickup, stepped onto the driver’s side mirror, and climbed in the window.  Mesmerized, we watched as a tall gray tail moved in and out of the front and back seats, pausing occasionally and disappearing at times.

Monty preferred to be on top of rather than in vehicles

                How many other vehicles has he inspected in our neighborhood?  Now and then my husband suggests mounting a camera on Finn’s collar to see exactly where he goes when he roams.  My only consolation is that if anyone drove off with him still in the car, the caterwauling and fidgeting by the foot pedals would get him kicked out within a block of home.

                Cats don’t have to be outdoors to get into places they don’t belong.  Once when my husband was putting new flooring in the bathroom, he had the grate off the heat register.  Sure enough he turned away for a second and when he looked back, Tigerlilly’s white and orange tail was disappearing into the duct work.  For the next hour or so we could hear her movements throughout the house as she explored the galvanized shafts in the walls.  She emerged on her own, a little dusty but unscathed.

                In the dryer, on the house roof, in the neighbor’s car, in the refrigerator, down the laundry chute, in the sofa—if a cat can get into something he shouldn’t, then by the law of cats, he must at least try.