I have reached a point where I hate entering and leaving my house because Chris and Frankie are always at the door waiting to run out.
Frankie escaped over the weekend and led me on a wild cat chase. Eventually he ended up under the car next door where he knows I can’t catch him. Whenever he goes under a car or a house I just have to wait him out, which I did.
I sat on my front steps for about ten minutes and, surprisingly, he came out from under the car and started meowing at me. I called to him and he walked up to the edge of the steps.
Since there was a railing between us I decided it would be safer to not try to grab him. Instead, I stood up, put my hand on the door and opened it when it looked like he was ready to come in. He hesitated for two second and then, as he was preparing to jump, Chris ran up to the door and scared him off. I think he ran out the door but I don’t remember. In any case, Frankie was in the wind again and it took some time before I was able to retrieve him.
On Monday morning my wife had to leave early for a business trip. At 7 a.m. I helped bring her luggage out to the car. As I was going out, Chris appeared out of nowhere and ran out the door. I rarely swear but I must have sounded like a Boston Truck Driver that morning. It was a minor incident, since Chris is easy to catch, but the frustration of not being able to come and go out of my own house reached a boiling point.
I put the luggage down and picked up Chris. I opened the door to put him inside and Frankie ran out. More swearing. Now my wife has to leave for her trip and I have to hunt down Frankie.
I lost track of him so I finished helping Rose with her luggage. She then left and I spent the next ten or fifteen minutes looking for Frankie. I had never seen him disappear for so long and I started to worry about him. If Rose was home I would have asked for help. I walked around until my shoes were saturated from the cold, wet grass. It was then that I spotted him behind our house. Of course, he wasn’t ready to come in yet.
Now we played a game of cat and human until he tired and was ready to come home. He actually came up our driveway to the back door. I opened it and he walked right in. This time Chris was not there to spoil it.
Bad Cat Chris 
oh I dislike the moment when they sit under a car… I once hurt myself badly as I tried to get a pekinese puppy who was under a car… and the challenge to bring one in while the other one escapes sounds like a real challenge…
The first time I tried to pull Frankie out from under a car, he scratched the hell out of me.
We have a vestibule which saves me from this sort of shenanigans. I don’t like the squirty bottle or principal but in this case i think it is warranted for safety. One inside and anyone near the door gets a squirt. One outside to wet any little faces trying to escape. I did this when we had to live in my office for a remodel and it worked. After 2 days no more charges when I opened the door.
Purrs
I tried the squirt bottle with Chris to no avail. He chews on it when nobody is looking. He has broken at least four of them.
That would drive me nuts……there’s a lot of advice on the internet about how to handle this and some expensive “equipment” to install to handle it as well but most say tackle it with training of some kind. Easier said than done!!
Pam
They both have an intense desire to go outside. I don’t think I can train that out of them. I want to build a screened room as a buffer zone but the $2800 estimate is more than I want to spend right now.
I really think you should rename the blog, Bad Cat Frankie, he seems to get into more trouble than Chris now.
Sometimes it seems that way, although I don’t see it at 4:00 every morning when Chris is waking me up and won’t stop.
with the exception of Dai$y; the trouters have always bolted and run. I bought an expandable gate that I use going out, and going inside. It took me a few to get used to how to maneuver it, myself, and the cat running area, though I learned that when on the “mad dash run” they wont jump over the gate, { a blessing } as they are too focused on the great escape. this might be something to consider
the gate is lightweight plastic and can easily be carried//picked up with one hand and it’s not extremely “tall” so I could step over it if I had to; granted probably breaking a leg in the attempt …… but ~~~~~ 🙂
I did consider that and it would help getting out but not so much getting in.
Are they treat motivated? Maybe you can toss a few away from the door as you are exiting and leave as they are running for the treats.
I have a few tricks up my sleeve. When I have groceries, I leave them all at the front door and then fight my way in the back door. I then feed them and close them on the other side of the slider and bring the groceries in without trouble.
Mom is having 52 heart attacks just from reading this. Yikes.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Hahaha… I think Mom would have trouble with Frankie. 🙂
What a pain! The mom is glad none of us do that…well, Wally has tried on occasion, but not every time.
It must be a gold cat thing.
Oh man – I can’t count he number of times I went through this with various cats ! Thankfully, the current indoor cats prefer to stay there.
I guess you earned it. 🙂