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Health & Fitness

The Trouble With Open Doors

My cat's great escape.

Open doors are often viewed as opportunities. Go on, walk through, they say; see what’s on the other side. (It’s interesting to me how fences with green grass on the other side get such a bad rap while open doors do not…)

I would have generally agreed that open doors are often positive things. Until today.

I just spent the last two hours looking for my cat. I couldn’t find him in the house, and assumed he took a little thing like an open door as an opportunity.

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I have been anticipating this jailbreak for some time. If you have read any of my other blogs, you know that my husband and I just adopted a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy. She needs a lot of access to green grass, or my carpet won’t stay clean and fresh. I have a timer on my kitchen counter that reminds me every half an hour to take Cricket outside. Every time the timer goes off, Richie stands on alert, scoping out his escape route. Being the savvy pet owner I am, I watch him pretty closely when taking the dogs outside. But today, as I came in through the garage, I had ten grocery bags in my hands. If I had a third hand, I am sure that closing the door behind me would have been a breeze. However, I am lacking in that department. So, the doors from the garage to the kitchen were open for the briefest moment in time. The only thing between my cat Richie and wide open spaces was, well, nothing.

I looked for Richie in the front yard, the back yard, around the bridge, behind the creek and in the vacant lots that are adjacent to my property. No cat. I drove around the neighborhood, calling out to my cat. If anyone heard a crazy lady yelling from inside her car on Irish Corner Road, it was me. I confess.

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I went on Facebook and told all my friends that I had lost my husband’s second love. Then I did what every good wife does when she loses something her husband believes to be of immense value; I groveled.

If my husband ever lost one of my dogs, there would be some serious trouble. Thankfully, my husband is far more gracious than I.

I returned home empty handed and dejected. I dropped my purse on the floor, and closed the door behind me. Then, I saw the cat jump down onto the living room floor from the window sill.

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