Pepper's Lesson

So, Pepper is DYING to be an outdoor cat. She screams through the screens whenever we open the windows and she tries to bolt out the back door every chance she gets. When she was younger, I tried to let her be a feline who swings both ways, but she took off and Mark and I had to spend the midnight hour searching and calling for her to return, so she promptly got sequestered back into mi casa. That's what you get if you break curfew. Take note, Tabbitha. But, yesterday we may have curbed her craving for freedom... forever.

MMMMEEEOOOOWWWW!!!

During one of Jack's 4,000 trips in and out of the house, Pepper made the mad dash out the sliding glass door, and actually made it... tail intact. Luckily, Will and I were sitting on the patio and so I knew she wasn't going to get far. We watched her skulk about, preening and prancing in her new found freedom. She surveyed her territory and decided to sun herself in a particularly bright spot near the patio table. That is when Will decided to teach her a lesson (or at least, that is how I am going to assume his thought process went). Otherwise, it is just mean and I don't want PETA after my 4 year old. So, let's just assume he saw this as a "teachable moment."

HISSSSSSSSSS!!!

He grabbed the cat, and I decided since he had her in his clutches, he should just throw her back in the house. He did as he was told, but picked the "play house" instead. Pepper looked a smidgen put out, as every cat does when someone makes them do something that they didn't choose for themselves (apparently, I was a cat in my past life)... but eventually just laid down. Jack decides to join the club and lumbers up the rock wall to check out the cat in the play house. I make the crucial error of saying, "Be careful, guys. There's not much room up there and you don't want to push Pepper off the side." Apparently what I said and what Will heard were fraternal twins, not identical, and he heard "Hey Will, push Pepper down the slide."

I have never seen a cat's eyes literally bug out of its head before. Needless to say, Pepper ran straight to the back door and into the house. I think she learned an important lesson about safety. The outside world is a dangerous place. Oh wait... I guess Will is inside, too. Good luck, Pepcid.