Pavlov's Cat

We've been opening the windows with the screen on the top half, because we're gone all day and it's warm (very warm)...yet, if a rain comes up, it ALWAYS comes in the windows. So, the screen moves up, and we open the windows from the top and if it rains, not-so-much wet.

The Toad is not the King of Observation. Hell, we're lucky he doesn't walk into the wall first, bumping along, until he finds the door some days. He, apparently, hasn't noticed this window switch we've been doing.

I asked him, yesterday, to open windows (if we don't ask, they don't get opened at all). He did. He opened them around noon.....from the bottom.

Here's the scenario. No screen on the bottom of the windows. Three cats, one of whom is usually desperate to get outside and RUN--RUN AWAY--RUN AWAY NOW! Neighborhood cats wandering about, sometimes during the day--and one of those cats is known at my house as "mean cat" or "bitch cat" because she doesn't seem to care much who she fights with, as long as she fights 'em.

I realize, about 30 minutes after I get in the house (by this time, it's almost 5pm), that the windows are open--really really open.

I try and count cats, but can only find 2 of 3. Not good. I shake the treat can. I get 2 cats. Well, heartless as it seems, trying to find the wanderer outside will simply make her bolt and hide. So, I'll just keep checking the porches and when she rolls her skinny butt home, I'll get her inside--if I can.

Pretty soon, here comes the wanderer. From upstairs. She is, apparently, too stupid to realize that she's "home free" if she just gets up in a window.

Now, this is a cat who has made several attempts at freedom through an UPstairs window. You can still see the patch/repair work on my kitchen ceiling from several years ago when she made a break for it out the bathroom window and the contractor had to lurch to catch her, and ended up stepping between the rafters (he'd gutted the entire bathroom) because there's no floor. He saved the cat and had to pry himself out of the kitchen ceiling, then fix that too.

Second story windows are okay to jump out of, but the first floor ones aren't? I think this cat really is retarded. (Same cat from previous posts about the Howler stuffing her into drawers and things)

Go figure. She's so used to the screens being there, she just believed they were there and never tried to escape.

Poor stupid Pavlovian kitty.