Did I Mention That It's Been Pouring All Day?

Let's recap: We have a fabulous cat door that, most of the time, allows the cats to come and go as they like, opening from the outside only when our cats stick their heads close to it and the magnetic key on their collars makes a connection. There are alternative settings - the door can be locked in both directions; the door can be set to let the cats out but not back in; and, as we know, the door can be set to let the cats back in but not let them out in the first place.

Slick has figured out that he can't get out of the house once he comes in. So he spends most of his day sleeping on the mat outside the sliding door into the back yard. In the evenings, he goes in and out every five minutes (more frequently if he can get someone to open the door more frequently) because he's panicked at the thought that he can't get out the cat door.

Max ( who's dumber than a box of rocks) still can't understand why he can't get out the cat door. He bumps his head against it repeatedly and then sits next to it and cries until someone gets him and locks him back in the bathroom for awhile. Under protest, he uses the litterbox but he waits till the last minute, entertaining all of us with the kitty version of the potty dance.

Maggie, who under the best of circumstances goes outside only when absolutely necessary, is extremely unhappy with having to share the litter box and has made that feeling known by peeing on top of any towels left on the floor. (In spite of this, no one is picking anything up any more than usual.)

It's not that I don't love them all. It's just that they're exhausting.

For those who are interested: Max got the drain removed on Monday. His stitches look good and we're remembering to give him his twice daily doses of amoxicillin. He gets the stitches out January 2 and hopefully will stop looking like the victim of a bad facelift....