Some of you may be familiar with our cat's hunting abilities. They consist mostly of staring and refusing to leave an area if she thinks something may be hiding there.
The cat really doesn't do much, and she eludes all visitors. OK she hides from them. Except for my parents - she comes out when they come over. She allows my mom to pet her and she bites my dad. He's the only person she bites. Maybe he should feel honored? Sorry Dad.
I digress. Living in Phoenix, we get the occasional lizard inside the house (like here and here). Several weeks ago, we found a semi-bloody lizard tail in the bathroom. Then we noticed the cat was obsessing over the cedar chest in our bedroom. She'd sit there for hours and just stare. Finally one night her hunting prowess kicked in and she shoved her head underneath for several minutes. Enough time for me to get my camera.
I love our kitty, but I was secretly hoping she would get stuck. Because THAT would be funny! No such luck. But she did come out with her fur all backward and dissheveled. Rob and I teamed up to corner the lizard, planning for one of us to scare it out an the other to catch it. It ran between my feet quick as lightning and under the bed!
We have plenty of stuff under the bed, so finding the lizard would not be easy. I like lizards, but I don't need one in my bedroom. And I really didn't need the cat to maim it and have it die/rot in there. So I dragged all the junk out from under the bed and began the search. (What kind of stuff do we keep under the bed, you wonder? A hammock chair, two giant cases of 90's cassette tapes that I refuse to get rid of, Rob's BB gun, picture frames that we'll never use and always forget to donate because they're under the bed, and dust bunnies...)
I digress again. Got all that junk out from under the bed and found the stupid lizard just out of reach under the center of the bed. When I turned to get a broom to scare it out, it disappeared! now the room was trashed and we were back at square one. With the cat pacing all around the bed and dusty junk.
Then it was bedtime and I needed to move all the junk from the middle of the room, so back under the bed it went. Yes, the picture frames, too.
The next day, the cat was stalking a different piece of furniture in the bedroom. This time, I was able to catch the poor dehydrated, tail-less lizard and put him outside.
FREEDOM! And either that lizard is fat or we narrowly escaped having several baby lizards living with us too.
The cat was TICKED that I took her lizard away. I know because she sulked into where I was sitting, turned around, and sat down for several minutes with her back to me and her ears flat, until she decided I had been sufficiently ignored. That'll show me!
Stupid cat.
3 years ago