When we lift for Illinois my husband and I had a cat sitter come over. The lady is a real sweet lady and Otis took to her very well. Otis is a fairly selective cat, he choices who he likes and who he just rather not be to friendly too. My cat has never really been a problem with people and has only once hissed at someone who wanted to come in, I didn’t let them in. In the long run Otis was actually protecting me from a not so nice man. Later he was kicked out of the apartment building for assault on another woman.
In my old apartment Otis figured out how to open the bathroom door, it wasn’t a normal round handle. It was one of those long handles. He once scared me to death because he came and joined me in the shower. I think I scared him worst then he me, with the scream I let out. I could have killed the cat for scaring me like that. After we moved into our new place, I figured Otis wouldn’t be able to open any more doors because these doors knobs are round ones, and I can’t see how he’d open the stupid door.
After Craig and I got married, and he moved in I like having my privacy in the bathroom so I close the door. I don’t lock it just shut it, and make sure it latches. Craig was in the Living room with the cat, when I went to take my bath. A few minutes past and the cat was at the door, a few minutes later the cat had figured out how to open the door. I yelled at Craig thinking he let Otis in Craig said Nope I been in here the whole time. I am not sure how Otis does it. He has nothing to grip on to with my door.
We had forgot to put away one of our garbage bags from the night before we lift, and Otis was getting into it. He likes playing in garbage nothing was in it to hurt him. My cat sitter came over and saw what he was doing, and put it in my bathroom, shutting the door all the way. I called her when we where on our way home and she told me. I knew which garbage bag it was. Well I guess Otis really liked the smell of it because he open the bathroom door.
We have one bag in the living room for garbage, we can’t do a small garbage in here because he will just knock it over and get into it so we just leave it down. He normally will not get into the bag that on the floor if he can smell it. In the kitchen we have it under our sink, which thank goodness he hasn’t been interested in opening. Craig takes that garbage out almost daily if I make chicken, we throw it out right away. In both bathroom we have a garbage can, he sometimes will get curious what in our garbage in the bathroom, those we don’t take out daily.
I told my cat sitter he open the door poor thing was worried that Otis was okay. I told her nothing was in it to hurt him and he was fine, he just knows how to open doors and get into this we don’t want him to. It is amazing how crafty animals can be. I had a hamster that used to get out of his cage. She figured out how to do it in the long run I had to get a different cage that she was unable to get out of. Otis and her got a long but lets face it small hamster to big 20 pound cat. Otis never tried to eat her but he so big he could have hurt her with out trying to.
I had a rat named Mercy, Otis used to run from her. They played a game of Rat chase Cat, they where friends, Otis has always been a gentle cat. He used to clean Mercy, I always watch him closely with her to just in case he thought oh yummy food. Mercy also figured out how to get out of her cage, and how to get into things you didn’t want her into.
