The Adventures of a Misty Monday Morning

We have way too many cats. Want some? It is a community of cats made up from at least two different neighbors. And, we haven't even talked about how many litters of kittens were born this spring.....sigh. 

Now that you have some background on our cat population, I have a true story to tell.

We have a pool. Not a 'real' pool that costs a ton of money. One of those blue sided pools. Not the kind with the blow up ring on the top (although we did start out with one of those) but one with the poles holding it up. Yup, we are livin' the life. When we had the cover on the pool this winter, some of the cats would leap up on the cover and sun themselves. Drove me nuts! I kept picturing pin holes in the cover from their claws because I knew how much the cover cost me! Put try as I might, like pounding on the window in the house or telling one or more of the kids to go get them off the cover, I could not win this fight. [I think it was more like a fight with myself.]

We have two different locations in the backyard where the cats and the dog can drink water. But we have at least one cat who thinks it has to go to the pool and get a drink. I was walking past a window and saw this cat eyeing our pool. I, of course, did the only logical thing and pounded on the window. The cat just looked at me. Then, as if it were thumbing his/her nose at me, proceeded to climb up the ladder, go down a step [paws in the water] and drink the water all the while swallows are swooping and screeching mere inches away. The cat's tail would flick every now and then as to say, "Away from me you dirty bird."

Oh, but that isn’t the best part. The cat then decided to do a ‘high wire act’ along the side of the pool stopping to amuse itself by the filter. I’m watching the thing thinking, one of these times the birds will startle it enough to have it fall in the pool. I’m wondering how long it would take for a cat to drown and wonder if I should wait that long to scoop it out or wait until two of the kids get home from volunteering at Bible School and have them scoop it out. Can you tell cats and birds are not my favorite things? Anyway…..The cat starts to move again, this time with something in its mouth. Something white and big for it…MY POOL SKIMMER SOCK!!!! The dumb cat stole the ‘sock’ out of the skimmer!!!!! I proceed to pound on the window since it obviously helped the last time. It just kept prancing off toward the field like it was carrying a mouse instead of the sock. What in the world?! We have a psycho cat!!!


What to do, what to do. The cat was headed for the field...with a skimmer sock. So I did what any good mother who is deathly afraid of birds would do; I yelled for our oldest to get downstairs. She came down and I told her to go get the sock away from that freak of a cat!!! She did as any dutiful daughter who isn't afraid of birds did. She went outside and walked toward the cat while her hands were covering her hair. She wasn’t worried about the birds swooping. She was worried about her hair….it was misting. It was a sight to behold. I'd like to embellish the story here and say she 'wrestled the sock away from the cat' but it basically dropped the sock when she got close to the cat. Wrestling it away would have been so much more romantic, you thing?! ☺


Did I put the 'sock' back on? Nope. Did I even go out to the pool to 'check' things? Nope. I did actually open the back door when I thought I was brave. Two birds swooped and I promptly did what a mature forty-something woman would do. I slammed the door shut and decided tomorrow would be a good day to check the pool. I really am afraid of birds. I like their songs....but from a safe distance.

So, we have psycho cats and swooping birds. How was your day?!