Reason-able Cats

Who says you can't reason with cats?

Getting our cats to come in from the porch at night used to be a nightmare. We have a screened-in porch that the cats love. In fact, they love it so much that it became a battle every night to get them to leave it. First we would call them. They would ignore us. Then one of us would go out and plead with them to go into the house. They would ignore us. Then we yelled at them to go in. They would ignore us. At that point, things turned nastier. We would pick up the fly swatter and threaten them with it (we called the fly swatter a "whip"). They would ignore us. Then it got physical. We would try to whack them with the whip and they would run under furniture to escape us. Obviously, we weren't going to win that battle.

Finally, in disgust, I said "Okay, Ryder. You tell me when it's time to come in." I left them alone. In a few minutes, Ryder came in and meowed at me. Eventually, I realized that he was telling me that it was time to come in. As soon as Shasta saw him in the house, she came in.

This became the nightly routine and continues just like clockwork every day between 9:00 and 9:30 pm. My husband says that Ryder wears a tiny wristwatch that he uses to keep on schedule. You have to agree that this is a more pleasant picture than the former one of two old, fat people chasing cats with a fly swatter.

Peace now reigns in the Russo household. And it's all due to our two reasonable cats who were made an offer they couldn't refuse.