Conference misery::feline_v1

    
     My Tabby used to do that under the bed fabric too!   Had me looking
    all over creation for him until I heard him giggling under there....
    thought he could fool me......ha!
    He also used to get into the back of my sofa-bed.  That was a real good
    one the first time too.  I was late for work that day trying to find
    him.  When he sneezed from the dust, it gave him away.  What  a cat!
    
       Denise and the gang of 10 (none of which pull such elaborate hiding
                                  tricks)

    It says in the cat manual that the cat allows the ownee to find him
    exactly 2 minutes after the owneee has developed a full blown state of
    the cat has gotten outside and is lost and has been gone wandering
    away God knows where ever since the last time I saw him panic/hysteria.
                                                            

in my bedroom closet, I have two shelves along the right side wall...I used
to keep books on these shelves.  Then one night I heard THUMP...THUMP..THUMP
and when I went to check it out, Hannahcat was busy pushing the books off
her "bunkbed" (top bunk, of course).  Knowing my cat, I immediately found other
places for the books and covered the two shelves with soft scraps of cloth...
now, when I cannot find Hannahcat and Mandycat anywhere else....they are 
napping on their bunkbeds (Hannah on top, of course).  Since I created the
bunkbeds for them, I don't "lose" cats anymore.  Sam is ALWAYS behind the
lounge chair in Marge's room, basking in the heat of her reading pole lamp.

    
    Our Siamese have found one place to hide which drove us crazy until we
    'disabled' their entry.  They would open the drawers under the waterbed
    and climb in.  Until we realized what was going on, we'd just shut the
    drawer in passing, and figured it out after one or more cats was
    'missing' for quite a while.  Andy fastened Velcro bits to the drawers
    and we no longer have this problem.
    
    Smudge is an accomplished hider, though.  In our old apartment, she'd
    get herself up on top of the kitchen cabinets and stay there for hours.
    She's also another one who gets into the sofa-bed, but her best place
    is up in the rafters down cellar - we can't figure out how she gets up
    or down, but whenever we can't find her anywhere else, that's where 
    she'll be.
    
    Sandy + 5 (or maybe 6) :^}
    

Our Russian Blues also "hide" on top of the kitchen cupboards.
Boris is wary of strangers, and often sits between the curtain and the
lining of some floor length curtains we have (i.e. you look behind the curtain
and you still can't see him!). 
*DC

    Mine will open the drawers to the waterbed and bureaus,
    dump out the clothes, and hide inside.  They also jump
    onto the top of the closet, and sit on top of the oil
    tank, the heater, the storage shelves, the unfinished
    walls, and under the wood stove in the basement.
    The couch in the livingroom has a sleep sofa, and we
    had to stuff a blanket underneath to keep them from 
    climbing under the couch into that section.  They
    also used to jump into the clotheshamper if we left
    the top open.  

    Mine usually head for my room and under the bed EXCEPT "Holly".  She
    knows how to lift the foot rest on my recliner and gets under and in
    back of the chair to hide.  When I don't see "Holly", that's where I
    find her.
    

    Kelsey sleeps on top of the cabinets in the kitchen too.  He blends in
    with the color scheme so sometimes it is difficult to see him there.
    
    Herbie likes to sleep down in the basement on the second shelf of
    Dana's workbench behind all the tools and cans of paint.  One day I was
    sure he had gotten out as I had looked all over the house and cellar
    for him but couldn't find him.  It wasn't until he sat up when I called
    his name that he was visible.
    
    Kelsey found a new place last night when I put him out on his run.  He
    dragged the rope into the neighbors yard and hid under the cover of
    their gas grill.  If the rope didn't give him away I never would have
    known he was there!
    
    None of mine are smart enough to open drawers or cabinets, thank
    goodness.
    

    Bailey hides in the wall....  For the longest time I was going nuts
    calling her and not hearing/seeing anything.  Then one night I heard
    her cry from far away, sure enough she comes out and looks at me like
    I'M the nut...  so I covered it, didn't work.... lost her again.  Then
    I went away for the weekend and she found out that her hiding place
    could keep her away from fun.  You see she would go right down the
    cellar, (I keep the door closed down there) so she was stuck... :-) 
    Her brother and sister thought it was great, they had more food and
    fun.  When I came home, I think its the first time I got all the
    attention I wanted from her.   :-) Live and learn... she learned....
    
    

    It sounds strange, but Jessica used to sleep on the beams.  We
    had long, thick wooden beams from one side of the room to the
    other, overhead where a ceiling would normally go, but the
    roof was triangular and the room was open up to the roof
    except for the beams.  Well, she'd hop to a table, then to
    the mantle of the fireplace, then to the top of the bookcases,
    then a HUGE jump onto the nearest beam, which must have been 
    about 12 feet off the floor.  There she would scare
    us to death by hopping from beam to beam.  Well, she got
    so comfortable up there that she began sleeping on the
    beam.  And so when you got home from work and called
    all over the house and no Jessica, then you'd look up
    and see a little black face looking down at you sleepily.
    
    This went on for almost two years, until the Sunday
    afternoon that we were sitting quietly in that room and
    she was asleep on the beams.  She forgot where she was
    and must have rolled over in her sleep.  There wasn't
    even a squeak of alarm from her as she fell (I sure
    screamed loudly enough for two).  She landed on her
    feet (of course), but strained some muscles.  The vet
    said two week of limited activity would take care of
    her and it did.  But she never, never got on the beams
    again.
    
    Laura, Jessica & Alex                              

    Gino, my one cat who hardly ever gets into trouble - but whe he does
    manages to stop my heart found a new spot about 2 months ago.  Richard
    left the double doors open to his Armoire (sp) and Gino jumped into it
    - some how got into the second drawer (which was closed) and got under
    the clothing and fell asleep.  Richard went by the dresser and
    closed the outer doors and turned out the lights.  Well, we were about
    to go out for the day and started counting heads and one was missing -
    to make a long story short we tore the house apart - as well as the
    basement and the crawl space - and roof tops.  No Gino.  I started to
    ring door bells and make up posters.  Got back to the house and I hear
    this meewww coming from somewhere but it sounded like it was coming
    from inside the walls - but Pippin and Stitch took us to the sound - we
    opend the doors and there trying to push his way out of the drawer with
    a sock on his head was a Totally Confused and Sleepy Eyed Gino.
    
    To say the least we all were much relieved.
    
    Giudi

    I guess all cats like the tops of kitchen cabinets..even fat TaiTai
    jumps from floor to counter to top of refrigerator to top of cabinets. 
    Looks really good as I have some of my ceramic/brass/wood cat figurines
    up there and they (Tai and Figaro) blend right in.  Tai also has a shoe
    fetish...he loves a pair of my husband's shoes..loafer style with a
    tassle.  In the morning we have to be careful not to shut him in.. My
    husband says that Tai is worshipping the shoe god... he rubs, rolls on
    them, and drools over them... only trick they still fall for is to
    clink two glass custard cups together..they get 1/4 can of catfood each
    morning and its the fastest way to make sure both are not getting into
    trouble before I leave for work... Someday they will realize it's my
    way of finding them... Aren't cats wonderful!!!!!

The funniest place that Gracie ever hid was in between
the sheets in back of the computer printer -- all that
was sticking out was her head and tail! What a riot!

Cheryl & kits

    Cocoa hides up inside the reclining section of the couch.  We have to
    turn it upside down and reach up inside to get her out!  Oscar hides up
    the chimney flue (only did that once, now it's always closed if there's
    no fire going!), and under the couch.  Should have seen my poor new
    neighbor when she came over to introduce herself and caught me shouting
    up the chimney for my cat......She never *did* come back...... ;-)
    
      -Heather +Muffy,Oscar,Pandora + Cocoa
    

    A couple of my kittens hide on top of my refrigerator.  The onlyproblem
    is that is the last place I always look (I always forget!).  I let my
    kittens out on my balcony (2nd floor), and it isn't until one is 
    missing and I run like a madwoman out the door thinking that one jumped
    off that I see them out of the corner of my eye on my refrigerator.

    Guido Tiggerini is a city cat; loves tarmac and concrete, and city
    lights.  A few years ago we had a horrendous thuderstorm that sent
    a micro burst through Fitchburg and did a lot of damage.  The weather
    went from hot and still to tremendous winds and bullet hard rain in
    seconds.  The screens blew in at the back of the house and rain, leaves 
    and twigs were flying through the kitchen.  I went out to look for the 
    cats right away, found two but couldn't find Tigger--he was hiding in 
    the low shelter we had built to hold the gasoline cans, in a thunder
    storm--good move Tigger.
    
    Recently, our fire alarms have taken to going off when ever I take a
    shower.  Miss Moffet and Charlie haven't been bothered by the niose 
    but Tigger runs to the basement and hides behind the oil burner--another 
    good move Tigger.
    
    I guess somewhere in his pea brain he must associate the smell of 
    gasoline with safety--good thinking Tigger.

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Note 2249.0                        Fireplaces                          8 replies
REFINE::TAYLOR ""Hug me, I purr!...""                20 lines  23-FEB-1989 12:55
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I decided that the scene last night at my house deserved a notes entry.

First, let me explain something.  As many of you know, I am a breeder.  I breed
Korats.  Well, at the present time, one of my queens, PITA (Pain in the *ss) is 
in full season!!  she is trying every way that she can to get out and find a
man!  She's tried to run out the door MANY times, clawing at the rug near the
door to get out, and so on.  Well, last night she got desperate!

I was sitting in the livingroom chair watching tv.  I looked over at the 
fireplace and saw PITA climbing in the fireplace.  I yelled, "GET OUT OF THERE
PITA!!" and I got up to get her out.  Well, the next thing I  knew, she had 
disappeared!  I went over and looked in the fireplace and she had jumped up into
the chimney past the damper!  I tried EVERYTHING to get her down, but she just 
sat there and cried.  Of course, she was just out of my reach, so I couldn't 
get her down myself!  There I was, kneeling in the fireplace, trying to get the
cat out of the chimney!!!!  By the time I got her down, both of us and the 
entire living room were COVERED in soot!!!  Needless to say, I shut the damper
after that and it now is only going to be opened when we have a fire.  

Holly
    

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Note 1070.0    Tabby and Silver and their great disappearing act!     22 replies
DISSRV::HTAYLOR "Cat lovers are a special breed"     30 lines  28-JAN-1988 09:22
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    Ok, how many of your cats do disappearing acts?  Tabbatha and silver
    do this quite often.  After I have been hunting for them for a while
    they decide that I have had enough and they come out and just look
    at me as if to say, "Oh, were you looking for us?"
    
    Last weekend topped it all.  We had a few friends over on Saturday
    night and we were having a small party downstairs in the  basement.
    We had started the woodstove downstairs and one of the dampers
    accidentally got closed so the room filled with smoke.  We decided
    to open the back door to let the smoke out.  Silver and Tabbatha
    had been running around all night.  When all of our guests had left
    and we were about to go to bed, we discovered that the cats weren't
    around.  We hunted the house high and low for both of those cats.
     We must have hunted for a good hour.  Went outside to see if there
    were any paw prints in the snow, but there weren't any.  That relieved
    my mind somewhat, but not enough.  Tabbatha had accidentally gotten
    out one time before when I opened the door to let a guest out and
    I thought that was what happened again.  I was in sheer panic. 
    I went downstairs to the storage area once again (I must have done
    it at least ten times before) and finally something caught my eye.
    We had a boxspring and mattress propped up against the wall and
    all of the sudden I saw something black on top of it.  I stood on
    a chair and saw Silver and Tabbatha curled up on top of the boxspring
    sound asleep.  Tabbatha must have heard me because she woke up and
    looked at me as if to say, "Why are you disturbing us now?  We're
    nice and comfortable!"  I couldn't believe it
    
    So, how many other cats do their little disappearing acts?
    
    Holly
    

    My kids hide in closets & in the recliner mostly. I have a bookshelf in
    the bathroom that they like to go to also. I think they enjoy sending
    me into a panic & then LOVING them up to the max once I find them! ;*)
    
    Bonnie

    Hobbes has discovered how to lift the lid on the dirty Laundry basket,
    and he will climb in and have a nap among the dirty socks & knickers
    (Phew !!!), unfortunately for Hobbes Calvin is not so adept and the
    method of entry he prefers is to sit on the lid untill it falls in
    squashing Hobbes between the dirty washing and a fat black cat.
     
    M.

    Peaches runs and hides whenever she hears the doorbell ring.  Her
    favorite place to hide is under our comforter.  She thinks no one can
    see the big lump in the middle of the bed.  But I'll  never forget the
    time when she was a kitten and we couldn't find her anywhere.  We tore
    the house apart for over an hour looking for her.  Then we came upon a
    pair of eyes blinking at us from the corner pocket of the pool table -
    silly cat!
    
    Paula  (Snuggles and Peaches)

    Hee-hee! That's so cute!
    
    Bon