I'll begin with the cat...an unexpected zinger of excitement to get the blood flowing. Which is helpful when the kitchen remains not-fully-heated. We have a wooden screen door between the kitchen and the dining room. To make it extra-glam, we covered it with clear plastic--and duct tape patchwork where the cats have harrassed it.
This version replaced the original black plastic sheet that Handyman hung between the rooms in the beginning. Ugh. Are you kidding me? At that time, it wasn't cold. In fact, we hung it up so we could run the A/C. (I think the timeline is coming into focus for some of you.)
ANYWAY, I came in from the barn after morning chores, to find a large, black tomcat sitting in my kitchen sink (on dirty dishes), looking out the window. He was not excited to see me. I recognized him from last winter, when I chased him out of my hayloft multiple times, getting a little vengeful glee watching him spring off the barn porch roof into the snow below.
The girls actually saw him as a youngster several summers ago, and tried to tame him, but no luck--which is miraculous. My girls can tame just about anything. He is not thin and he is not neutered, and he is definitely not tame. I called out for Handyman, who was upstairs, but I wasn't sure he heard me, so I was making my way slowly toward the screen door to yell louder.
As I approached, "Zeus" (what the girls had called him way back when), leaped from the sink to the dish drying rack, sending my griddle crashing to the floor, and splintering it into multiple unuseable pieces. He then tried to spring straight up the face of the stainless steel refrigerator, and ALMOST made it, twice.
By then Handyman had made it to the scene and as he came in the door, Zeus had made it back onto the counter and onto the top of the refrig and was trying to dig through the insulation into the ceiling to escape. Handyman was hot on that, because if the cat made it up there, he would be loose in between the stories of the house, with no easy capture or release. So H. went for the big floor duster to keep the cat out of the ceiling, while I tried to make myself small and unintimidating by the washer.
My biggest worry for those fleeting seconds was that Zeus would become Cujo and launch himself into Handyman's face and then what would I do?? There was a quick Will Ferrell-esque vision of the cat on Handyman's head, and they're spinning around and he's screaming and I'm whapping them with the broom...but then I figured I'd better get serious. If Handyman were to be injured, the kitchen would be even more delayed! I might have to start hanging drywall myself...and then my mind went directly to crazy-quilting, which I love...
...perhaps not the best drywalling technique.So I opened the back door and Handyman pretty much swept the cat off the refrigerator. He headed straight for the open doorway. Whew! H. followed him out and opened the big garage doors to let him vamoose!
The griddle was a small tragedy...as it served as my frequent stovetop. I still have my sister-in-law's electric skillet, which will have to stand in more often now.
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