The Great Escape

Because my cats will someday be indoor-outdoor cats (if they so desire), tonight I took Pony outside on a collar and leash for the first time.

And it took him about .02 seconds, chasing after a butterfly, to slip the collar.

SHIT.

He took off, of course, with me behind him. But I have to admit, he acquitted himself admirably. First, he circled the outside of the house, just far enough ahead of me so I couldn't catch him. I was fast-walking behind him, which I am sure was amusing to the neighbors. He paused at the front and back doors, as if to say, "This is how I get back in, right, should I CHOOSE to get back in ..." and kept on going. Directly into the brush on the land adjacent to mine. Not only brush; PRICKER BUSH brush. And there he was, 6 feet away, underneath the pricker bush.

I called to him. I walked away and came back. I went and got a dish of food and showed it to him. And he looked at me as if to say, "Are you INSANE, woman? I'm FREE! FREEEEEEEE! HAHAHAHAHA!!"

Well, since it was his first time outside, I didn't want him to be out too long, so ... I went in after him. Into the pricker bush. And do you know what that cat did as I got close? He hissed at me.

I had never heard that cat hiss before, EVER, but when he sensed his beloved freedom was about to be compromised? Oh, I was the ENEMY. "F*ck you, bitch! Hisssssssssss."

But. I got close enough to scruff him, and got him back in the house, and I'll be ready to take one of the cats outside again in approximately ...

... three years or so. Man.