Dewey, our adopted kitty, is one of the smartest but dumbest cats I have ever had the privilege of loving. Opening closed doors is no obstacle for him, as long as the handle is lever style, he can open it by hanging onto it with his paws and then, leaning backwards, every so slightly, he pulls it open with the weight of his body.
However, what is so funny, is that if we forget to the lock the door, Dewey, having let all the OTHER animals out, won’t go more than a foot from the house, he is terrified! So although he is smart, he is no kitty Delta SEAL.
Dewey sleeps with the kids every night, alternating between beds, he loves to stay snugly and warm. In the morning, after numerous attempts to end your life by being under your feet as you walk down the stairs, he waits to be fed. This morning, I realized, no Dewey under my feet. Hmmm, I wonder, where is Dewey. I ask the kids, no one has seen him. We do a room to room search, no Dewey. I start to worry, could Dewey have somehow, ever so stealthily, snuck out when I let the dog back in last night?
I go outside the garge door, and start calling “Deweeyy, Deweeyy”, I hear nothing initially, but then, after a brief moment, I hear the most terrified crying, cat crying. I start looking through the landscaping, hearing his voice, but not seeing him anywhere. Instinctively, my eyes follow the sound of the desperate meowing, up and up and up, until, there he is, a soaking wet orange “rat” looking terrified Dewey. Then I realize, he had jumped out a window we had left open, screen-less, in the upstairs laundry room. Sometime, between 8pm and 10pm, when I closed the window, he had begun his adventure.
My brave husband, braving the rain and wind, put up our tallest ladder, climbed the 40 or so feet, grabbed the cat, and safetly, rung by rung, returned our Dewey to our arms. My daughter said “Daddy, you are a superhero” , and we all agreed!
Dewey, barring a few sore pads on his paws, is fine, sleeping most of the day, cuddled up one of the kids beds.
Who wants to take bets, that if I left that window open again, he’d climb right back out!
Pretty cat. We have three ourselves. Neo, Cypher and Trinity.
Yes, I’m a geek.
I think all cats try to kill their human masters. Or, as the cat thinks.. the human pets.
That is a great picture.
Lever door handles can be set so you can only open them by lifting up. We did it that way so kids and pets couldn’t get out.
Great idea Moon! I will tell the hubby! Poor Dewey, could not have picked a warm spring night to get stuck on the roof, had to pick a crappy rainy cold night.
Marinm,
Funny, that is what my hubby said about the cat being the death of him!
We conservative men all think alike. 😉 The Glenn Beck app on my phone keeps me in touch with the mothership.
I am going to tap in to the mothership and zap you back to normal mental health, Marin.
You conservative men, have your good points and your rotten points 😉
The mothership says: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Oh, and Ron Paul 2012. :evilsmile:
Don’t jump Dewey! Elena will never be a conservative but this is not the answer, there is still hope, she can change, we believe in that!
Seriously, did Dewey get down safely or did you have to call the fire department? My cat, a 22 pound monster, is too lazy and fat to even dream of getting to a place like that. Heck, he won’t even move when you try to push him out of your seat. He just kind of rolls as your hands sink into his fat when pushing him until his rotund body slinks down to the floor like a wet noodle… then he starts snoring again.
I’m wondering how the heck he got up there.
@Dan,
Yes, he got down safely, my husband, being the manly man that he is, would not hear of calling the fire dept.
Elena, it’s a good thing that your husband did the manly man thing and rescued the cat. My neighbor’s cat climbed one of our trees in mid-winter one year. The owner said that the cat would come down when he was ready and not to worry. Two days later the cat was still about 30 feet up the tree and had no intention of climbing down despite freezing weather. I tried to cajole the fire department into rescuing him but they don’t do cat duty. Finally the cat’s owner called a tree service and a climber went up the tree, bagged the surly cat, and climbed down to many cheers.
Remember, dogs are domesticated. Cats are just…tame.
Proof: If you owned a cat the size of Mastiff or Irish Wolfhound, it would eat you…..
What a wonderful story, Elena. And a pleasure to read after all the non-stop real-world depressing stuff.
And I owe my friend Elena a big apology. When she told me she was going to do the story of her terrible, no-good rotten morning, I told her no one would give a ****. I was wrong.
She wanted to do a feel good story.
He jumped to the open screenless window, saw this intereseting roof line, and jumped again, probably, at that point, realized his critical error, but at that point had no choice but to continue scrambling up the roof to find a spot that he could rest on.
Firedancer,
Thanks for visiting and reading my Dewey story :)\
Poor thing is exhausted and has slept all day. His little paws are so sore I will probably carry him down to the kitty box.
Dan,
We had a cat like that, Jodi, I had a roommate that once described her as “oozing” fat, she was so jello like. She was a great cat, blind, and yet if you took her outside, and babysat her, she would catch a cricket and have with it til she ate it. She even caught a mole once. My hubby said it didn’t count since it was blind too!
This cat story looks to me like a put up job. The cat clearly has been assigned lookout duty. He is supposed to start hissing and meowing like crazy when “e” appears at Elena’s place again.
e will get bread and water if he shows up. At Elena’s house that is real punishment.
Good one, Wolverine. Lookout cat!!
Funny Wolverine! e loves cats though so I’m not sure that Dewey wouldn’t be willing to collude with him 😉
http://www.jejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp078108
Perhaps Dewey sensed our Caps choking again to end a season.
That could explain being on the roof — soaked and sad.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp078108
Funny Big Dog!
It was the RAPTURE! Dewey was joining Ceiling Cat!
Cargo,
You forced me to do a google search. FUNNY! Dewey is Jewish for sure, so how do I explain he isn’t included in the Rapture? LOLOLOL
I LOVE cats! Lived with them for my entire life. Yet, I find them standoffish/oddly independent at the same time. What’s the saying? People don’t adopt cats, cats adopt people. I have two dogs (big ones) and two cats, both adopted from feral colonies. And who rules the dogs? The cats. Who rules the humans? The cats. Dewey could have figured his own plan for leaving the roof, but why should he? The humans he adopted would do it for him. And heck yes Dewey would do it all again just to prove his humans are at his beck and call:)
elena’s comment beat me to it, i was exactly going to say that cats and i are kindred spirits, and dewey would hardly hiss at me. kind of like trying to sic a dog on mel gibson
DB,
Yep, agree with everything. Do WOULD do it again and the cats DO rule over our dog, a 115 lb dog I would add. He is especially afraid of Dewey……what a wuss!
Awesome ending to an awesome story, Elena! I remember a cat of mine that did that in a townhouse complex. He actually crossed from our roof the the neighbor’s!
Hark! Hark! E is on his way. Prepare the bread and water.