outsmarted by a peep... the indignity!

Let me tell you about my brother, Rushton.  First of all, he's a marmalade cat.  But you could probably tell that from his picture.  Secondly, he's incredibly smart.  But then, he's a cat, right?  Of course he's smart.

Rushton's true talent is that of opening things.  And what he opens best is the kitchen window.  It's a window with a lever and Rushy knows that if he pulls that lever forward with his paw, the window pushes out.  Once he gets it started, he uses his head to force it the rest of the way.  He's very good at this.  I, too, understand the mechanics of the process however Rushy is bigger and stronger and so better suited to this type of manual labour.  Also, I figure, if he's willing to do it, why should I trouble myself?

Well, the peeps weren't overly pleased about this window opening business.  They've been complaining for ages.  I try to just ignore them but you know peeps can be.  The thing is, Rushton was opening the window in the middle of the night a lot.  The peeps like us all to be in at night where it's safe and warm...  blah, blah, blah...   and Rushy was letting us all out.  Ha, ha, ha, ha....  yeah, still chuckling over here.

Oh, those peeps have tried so hard to stop Rushton.  Peep #1 in particular.  She'd fold up newspapers and wedge them under the lever.  Place big bags of our dry food on top of the lever.  Then she'd pull a kitchen chair over, thinking that would make access more difficult and pile heavy stuff up on top of that.  Ha, ha, ha, ha....   yeah, you guessed it....  every morning she'd find the window open.  That Rushton is one smart dude.

It all came to screeching halt last night.  Once she had us all in the house, a huge wooden plank was placed along the entire length of the window ledge.  A six foot long plank.  The plank was placed directly behind four screws peep #1 must have installed in the window frame when I wasn't watching.  Oh...  that peep has been planning this for quite some time. 

During the night, Rushton went to do his usual thing.  Obviously the plank was in his way.  He hopped up in between it and the window but the lever can no longer be pulled forward.  There's no way to do it, he says.  And I believe him because I can't think of anything either.  Oh....  outsmarted by a peep!  The indignity!  Poor Rushy.

The only thing left to do is to ask Santa for a saw this Christmas.  Or maybe a screwdriver...   Santa, are you listening?