Adventures in Housesitting

This week I'm staying at the house of a guy who owns one of the airplanes at work. It's been a different experience living alone in a big house with 3 cats, a dog, and a fish. The house has basement so the first floor makes the normal noises you would expect when you walk on it, but the dog is heavy enough that she can briefly sound like a person walking across the floor. That can freak you out for a split second when you think you're alone. And the cats aren't exactly sound sleepers, prowling around the house at 4 in the morning.

This morning, I got up for work and, like yesterday, to feed the animals and take the dog outside on a leash since there is no fenced yard (reminder to self...feed the fish when you get back this afternoon). I closed the front door, but didn't push it far enough to latch since I'm paranoid about locking myself out of a house where no one is home at 6 AM. When the dog and I came back around to the front of the house, the door was open about eight inches and the two gray cats ran back in the house when they saw me. I took the dog inside, but couldn't find the white and orange cat. (I really should have know better. I'd already seen this cat open a door that opens outward with her paw.)

So then I found myself walking up and down the sidewalk with a flashlight trying to listen for the cat who would occasionally meow and hoping it wasn't coming from the garage of the neighbor who had pulled out while I was in the house. I walked back toward the house and saw the cat on the porch. At least I knew it wasn't running around the neighborhood, so my fear of suffering death upon the homeowner's return was lessened. I walked up to open the front door and let her in, but instead she ran away. Ah ha, food! I thought I'd open her canned food and put down a plate so I could pick her up when she came to eat, but she walked away from me...from food she's normally begging for.

I thought I'd open the garage door and put the food in there, then shut the garage door, but then the cat was back on the porch. I think she was just bored with exploring and perhaps smelled the food on my hands, because she let me grab her collar and pick her up this time. Lost family pet crisis averted.