The weather has changed and fall is definitely here. It's cold and rainy, and I've been hunched up all day. I get cold sitting at the computer, as my desk is in a corner, against 2 outside walls. I keep warm by climbing into one of those funky body wrap "snuggle bags" that look like an oversized sleeping bag. You know the kind--you step into it and zip it up to the waist, and the rest drapes around your shoulders like a shawl. Toasty warm, if a bit awkward to get into and out of. I tried staying in the snuggle bag and hopping around when I needed to get somewhere, but that was too undignified, not to mention exhausting, so now I just unzip and climb out.
I had to go to the kitchen to make lunch a few days ago, so I unzipped the bag partway and climbed out. I left it draped over my chair so that when I returned, all I had to do was step in, sit down, and zip up. That's when the fun began, because I didn't realize that in my absence, one of my cats had crawled into the bag and curled up at the foot. So when I returned, I climbed into the bag, getting irritated that my feet seemed to be tangled up in an excess of material at the bottom, while simultaneously marveling at how much of my body heat was still trapped in the foot of the bag. That's when something attacked my stockinged foot in an excess of kitty playfulness. And that's when I realized there was SOMETHING ALIVE in the bag with me!
What ensued next was worthy of a Mack Sennett Keystone Cops movie. Have you ever tried to claw your way out of an overlarge snuggle bag that contained a suddenly startled cat that is also trying to claw his way out before you? I fell off my chair and somehow ended up clinging by my fingernails to the ceiling. My cat was beside me hanging upside down by his claws. We looked at each other, then down at the demon bag. Then we dropped down from the ceiling, straightened our clothes, and tried to act nonchalant. Since then, my cat won't have anything to do with the Snuggle Bag That Eats Cats. Can't imagine why!
Have you ever had an experience where you were startled/frightened by a varmint, domesticated or not? Ever had an encounter with a wild critter? What happened? Do tell!
Returning with a different angle
5 years ago
4 comments:
When my cats were young, I often found them under the covers of the bed, behind the cushions on the sofa, and even in a pair of boots. When we were in the South Pacific we had to make certain that nothing was in our shoes before we put them on. There was a rumor about a snake coming up in the toilet, though we never saw any closer than the laundry room. Hard to get a child to be potty trained with such stories going around. We were also visited by miniature frogs, Geckos, crickets and regular size rats. One became cautious.
The expeperience I remember most vividly happened when I was about fifteen and at summer camp. We were sleeping out one evening, when the counselor suddenly screamed and writhed desperately until she could get out of her sleeping bag and toss it away.
Of course, we were all awake by then. To our horror we saw a snake crawl out of her sleeping bag. It was a harmless snake but none of us slept any more that night. No need for horror tales over the camp fire. Nothing could be more horrifyig to us.
Hi, Regencyresearcher! I remember youth camp and how fun it was to tell campfire horror stories. We slept in cabins in bunks, and after lights-out, we were supposed to go to sleep, but it was much more fun to whisper and giggle.
We were never visited by wild critters at camp, though. My scariest encounter was the scrambled eggs they served. They put them in big aluminum trays and baked them in the oven. The aluminum turned the eggs GREEN. (Green eggs and ham, anyone?)
We had a fairly high-strung cat we called Fuzz (for obvious reasons, but my oldest son also called her "Fuzz-for-brains.") One day she was asleep on the mat in the entry way while my youngest daughter and her two friends kept sneaking up the stairs to try to scare me. The third time they did this, I sneaked up right next to the top of the stairs and when they got to the top I yelled really loud and scared them, also making THEM scream. Fuzz was a dark-colored cat and I hadn't seen her three feet away on the entry mat. She helicoptered straight up into the air, landed on the answering machine by the front door, leaped to the top of the front doorway, tried to claw her way out, hit the floor and disappeared in a cloud of fur. We finally (when we could stop laughing and get up off the floor, which took several minutes) found her behind the couch trying to look nonchalant and not making it.
ROFLOL! Lesley, I can just see poor Fuzz. That was such a funny story. I love how cats go straight up when startled.
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