This Is How the Kids Learn Bad Habits

My brother spent yesterday afternoon repairing the screens on three different windows after two of the cats busted out of the joint over the weekend.

We're at that golden time of the year when it's warm enough not to need to keep heat in the house and cool enough not to need the air conditioning and so virtually every window is open 24/7. The cats like to sit on the sills and fiddle with the screens (or, sometimes, claw at them if they see, or imagine, something is out there).

Over the weekend, Jasmine and daughter, Mittens, managed to shred (very quietly, while no one was looking) the screen in one of the windows of the breakfast nook. They chose the window with the barbecue grill parked underneath so they didn't have a high jump down onto the ground but could take it in steps. I don't know how long they were out before I noticed how quiet it was and went looking, in vain, through all the rooms for them. It was a good ten minutes of searching before I noticed Jasmine under the mango.

This was Mittens' first time out and she seemed a little spooked by it all. She was still by the grill and tried jumping back in the window that way when I came for her, but I had already closed it. She was easy to catch and, I think, a little relieved to be returned to safety.  Jasmine, on the other hand, had made a career of living rough before she came to us all knocked up and she was enjoying herself out there. I couldn't get within ten feet of her. I put a dish of kibble in the lanai and tried to block off all but one access route but she didn't fall for it. I consoled myself with the realization that she's grown so fat she poses no threat to the birds, or the squirrel or any but the stupidest lizard.

Three hours later, after sunset, she came to the front door in the pitch dark and begged to come in.

I mentioned up top that my brother repaired three windows. That's because this wasn't Jasmine's first breakout. She went through the bottom of the screen in his bathroom window a couple weeks ago and I noticed her wandering through the lanai and snagged her then (which may be why she stayed out of it this time). She also damaged the window over his tub.

Meanwhile, Paribanour lay comfortably atop her DVR set top box the whole time. She got out, accidentally, once before for all of two minutes and less than a foot from the front door and did not like it at all, no thank you. She much prefers her TV/DVR/my laptop and other tech to adventuring in the wild.