Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 March 2004 10:06:50
Curled up in a corner of the easy chair looking sweet and adorable sits my cat Charlie. He looks like one of those cats you see on pictures of country cottages, curled into a ball and fast asleep in front of the fire. This picture of innocence is the creature who has worked out how to open the kitchen door after I've shut him out at night.
He has the run of the kitchen, the porch and the garden. Is this enough for him? No. He want's my company. All very flattering, I'm sure, but not when you're woken by a persistant mewing at your bedroom door at 2 a.m, and especially knowing Charlie's propensity for bringing little visitors home during the night - mice, rats, birds, a squirrel, and two ornamental goldfish.
For a few weeks I have been using my accordion to secure the door. (Any comments along the lines of it being the only good use of an accordion will be severely ignored). I tied a cord to the handle of the case and the handle of the door, bargaining on the accordion being too heavy for Charlie to pull the door open. It worked a treat, until I had to take my accordion to church last Sunday and then kept forgetting to get it out of the boot of the car.
So, I came up with another brainwave. For the last couple of nights I have closed the kitchen door slowly, with my hand through the gap pulling a chair closer and closer to the door, thus barricading the door from the inside. Brilliant idea, I thought, until both nights I remembered my mobile phone was still in the kitchen so had to regain entry in the middle of the night. The door wouldn't open and wouldn't open. Why? Well, when I finally managed to open the door just a bit, I saw not only the chair rammed against the door on the other side, but Charlie (A rather hefty fellow) sitting proudly on top of it and smiling smugly, stubbornly refusing to shift.
I will win this battle.. I will, I will.