Ashlyn and I have been watching a lot of My Cat from Hell lately. Jackson Galaxy is a cat behaviorist who helps people with their naughty cats. It definitely makes me realize how much we lucked out with our three cats. They don't have aggression or territorial issues. They're very friendly and lovey with us...although they're not really fans of other people. But even then, they just hide under the bed or downstairs. If my mom and grandma come over, they'll come out after awhile and observe from the hallway...then they might come out into the living room with us. Our cats have also never gone to the bathroom outside the litterbox at all. When they were tiny babies, they were too tiny to climb into the litterbox. We put a little box in front of it as a step and they have used the litterbox without fail ever since. They were seriously the easiest things I have ever potty-trained. ;) Jackson actually recommends one litterbox for each cat plus an extra one...we only have one covered litterbox that gets scooped nearly everyday and haven't had any problems.
These three kitties have definitely made me a cat person. They're my little furbabies and I try to keep them happy and healthy. They've been indoor cats their whole life...since strictly indoor cats live a lot longer than indoor/outdoor cats. Well...over the last year, they've been obsessed with going outside. At first it was just Milo. He would dart out the door anytime we opened it. We started letting him go out on the porch every once in awhile. Then he started venturing to the sidewalk and climbing the trunk of the tree in front of our porch. Then he started running through the yard and around the side of the house when we'd try to pick him up and bring him back in the house. So we started letting him go out in the backyard a little bit. Then Leo started wanting to go out a few months ago and now Angel does as well. So when we let the puppies out and have time to sit out there with them, we'll let the kitties wander around the backyard. Angel has her spot under a chair where she likes to lay down for the most part and watch everything. Leo loves climbing and lounging on the roof of the old doghouse. Just in the last couple weeks he started going out into the grass and will chase bugs and butterflies with Milo...who still continues to push boundaries. There is a tree in the corner of the yard that he likes to climb and twice in the past week he jumped to the top ledge of the fence (the 2"x4" where the boards are attached). And a couple weeks ago, he got out the gate where a board was missing and I found him sitting on the neighbor's sidewalk. The gate has since been fixed. :P
But yesterday shortly after I got him down from the top of the fence...Milo escaped the fenced-in backyard. UGH. Johnny and I had taken Linken outside (while Aubry was at work) and let all three cats out. When we were ready to go in, Milo was nowhere to be found. This was about 3:30pm. We looked all over the yard, under the neighbor's deck and shed, walked around the block, and Johnny drove around quite awhile looking for him. I emptied their litter and put some on the front porch and some on the back porch. I put a can of food in the front and the back. I also put the blanket that he sleeps on in our bed outside on the front porch. I kept going from the backdoor to the front hoping he'd be out there. Nope...nothing.
After Johnny got back the last time he went driving around, we went back outside. He stood on a large planter by the fence and shined his light around the neighbor's yards. We can see about five backyards from there. Johnny was shining the light from his phone and calling Milo's name. Then he saw two glowing eyes walking from around a neighbor's shed a few yards over. Johnny hollered for me to go around the fence and grab Milo.
I picked Milo up and his belly was completely muddy. I assume he was hiding under the shed. With all the people and animals and everyone mowing their lawn while it was such a nice day...I assume he was trying to hide. So I took him inside and got everything ready to give him a bath. The cats have NEVER liked baths. When we first brought them home, they were covered in fleas and dirt. We gave them several baths in order to get them cleaned up and rid them of the fleas. Still...they never got used to being bathed. I just used a washcloth with soap to wash the mud off of his belly, legs, and feet since the rest of him was clean. I held him by the scruff and he tolerated me scrubbing off the mud...but he freaked out when I tried rinsing him. I didn't have enough water in a bowl to get all the soap out and running the water in the tub was too loud. So I pulled everything off the counter and rinsed him off in the bathroom sink. I was able to get all the soap out and then toweled him dry. I was going to use the hairdryer but he didn't like that at all, either. I turned up the thermostat so the air conditioner wouldn't come on while he was still damp and he dried completely before we went to bed.
I'm so glad to have Milo home. I haven't let him go outside since. When we get done with our current home improvement projects, I'd like to build a "catio" so that the cats can go out in an enclosed area to explore without worrying about them getting out of the yard. Jackson Galaxy suggests putting a netting or wire on top of the fence at a 45 degree angle so the cats can't jump the fence...but we have a really big yard and that's a lot of fence. So...we'll have to see what we can do. Until then...they'll just have to stay inside.