Escape artist extraordinare!

I decided to make Sulley the subject for this post because he has a way of really throwing a wrench into things when you least want it to happen. Nay, when you least NEED it to happen.

Have I mentioned he's a skilled escape artist? Well, he is. He has nearly perfected the "sneak-and-sprint" maneuver that gets us every time. You learn to predict it though. I'm really good at heading him off when I'm coming IN to the house.

Here's my system (one must do all 3 steps at once):

1. Make sure to step into the house with front foot waving in front of me
2. While bent over, wave my purse or whatever else I am carrying in one hand, and...
3. Hiss through my teeth like a snake as menacingly as possible. 

I know it sounds complicated, but it works for some reason. =] It's the LEAVING the house part that gets us in trouble...er, gets HIM in trouble. I swear he has a device embedded in his brain that detects when we're the most distracted.

It wouldn't be so bad if he were like Titus or Loki. Those two boys have zero self-preservation instinct when we let them outside (granted, it's not just cuz they're dumb...it is kind of part of their breed characteristic). They just bumble about the yard, gingerly sniffing the air and taste-testing the grass. The best part about those two is they never look UP.

However, Sully not only looks up, he looks all around. This is where you get in trouble with a cat. One fateful day, he figured out that he can jump and CLEAR the 6 foot privacy fence and land on TOP of our neighbor's shed where he gets a glorious view from on high. That was that. Every time he gets out, he heads straight to that part of the fence and up he goes. He also figured out that he can jump from their shed onto the roof of their actual house. It takes some coaxing, but we can usually get his attention and lure him back to the edge of the shed with a bag of treats that crinkles (he goes BONKERS for that sound and the word "treat"). Let's just hope he doesn't become desensitized to our tactic anytime soon!

He always strikes at the most inopportune times too (for us at least). Take for instance one afternoon when we needed to be gone by 1pm so that our Realtor could show our house. At 12:35 (while Ryan and I were in a frenzy, hurriedly grabbing last-minute dog necessities and things to keep us entertained for a couple hours elsewhere), Sulley shoots out the back door under our feet. We worked frantically to get him back in the house, but we still ended up seeing the people who were coming to look at the house pull up in their car as we backed out of our drive! Awkward. =\

Just yesterday, I was meeting Ryan after work at the nearby lake to get some fresh air and take the dogs for a walk. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to meet, he calls and says Sulley got out and he has to grab him. I say okay. He calls 10 minutes later, calls off the walk, and says I have to drive home to help him get the cat because he won't come out from under the neighbor's front porch. I say okay and start driving the 15 minutes to the house. Ten minutes out, he calls and asks if I still want to walk. I said yes, so he tells me to turn around and meet him in 15 at the lake again cuz he finally caught the little turd. Soooo...nearly 45 minutes after our relaxing evening was supposed to begin, we finally made it to our meeting spot and got to take advantage of the nice weather. *sigh* It was a bit colder than it would've been 45 minutes earlier, but I digress. At least the cat was safe and we still got to go on our walk (for which I'm sure the dogs were duly appreciative).

Here is a picture of the troublemaker caught in a rare moment of innocence. It'd be too hard to catch a photo of him in the act of any of his trouble making because he's always moving. Our snapshots almost always capture him sleeping or snuggling in some form. So, enjoy this picture of the "angel." Mwuahahaha I do just love the texture of his fur here though.

black and white makes it really pop

the original. love his reddish color.

Aww. So cute; so cuddly, you say. Pffft. Don't let him fool you folks!

~A