OK - that was Weeble-speak, but they were OUT!!!

We've been replacing a few windows on our house at a time, whenever we have
a some extra $ saved up, we order another one.  Last time, we ordered 2.  We
always have to special order them as our house was built in 1925, the walls
are thicker and the windows are taller than normal windows.

The new windows that we have been getting are double hung (both he top and
bottom sash slide), with a full screen (as opposed to a screen only covering
the bottom half).

Unfortunately, these screens are only held in place by 4 spring-pins, so
they have occasionally popped out.  The first time it happened to Lizzie,
when Weebs was still a hoolikitten, he attempted to join her at the
kitty-bench in the front window of our bedroom, but he climbed up a bit of
the curtain, and this curtain (the sheers) was only held in by one of those
tension rods, so it plopped down right on Lizzie, startling her.  She
jumped - right into the screen, the screen popped out, and Lizzie went out
the window.  I was right there and so I dove out the window too, grabbing a
handful of Lizzie-fur before she could panic and dash off.  So, here I am,
hanging out the front window (which is only 2 feet off the ground), holding
onto a cat by the fur on it's back.  Fortunately, Lizzie did NOT bolt, and I
was able to squirm forward enough to be able to scoop her up and worm my way
back in through the window.  That must of been a sight for anyone who
happened to see it.

Last Sunday, that same screen popped out, and Smokey was outside for we
don't know how long - I think I wrote about that episode in my Canoe
Expedition post.

Then last night, I was drifting off to sleep on the sofa while watching TV.
TV was bugging me so I turned it off.  Tried to drift off again, but
couldn't because Moe & Ernie decided they wanted to play with a metal bottle
cap on the back porch.  Back porch is tiled (since November last year), so
you can imagine the rattle/klink/scrap I kept hearing.

I decided to just go to bed.  Since we have 8 cats, and none of them
actually want to sleep at the same time (let alone at the same time we do),
we don't let them in with us except on weekends.  2 hours into my "evening
nap", DH bursts into the room, stating that some of the cats got out!

Seems that one of tithe 2 newer windows, the one in our 'office', has had
the screen pop out!  DH had decided to watch a DVD after I went to bed, and
he doesn't know how long that screen had been out.

I'm bleary-eyed, but I'm running around the house counting kitty-heads.
Weeble is following me around.  Lizzie's on the back porch.  Mimi is
following Weeble.  Moe, Ernie, Tennessee, Smokey, Ping are not found.  DH
has grabbed a flashlight and run outside (it's now dark out), and has run
outside.  I finally see Ernie, in the 'office'.  I go to the back porch in
time to see Ping run right up to DH just as he leaves the house.  DH, scoops
Ping inside.  I hear the window open & close, then Tennessee comes from in
the 'office'.  A few seconds later, DH comes back in the back door, carrying
Smokey.  He asks about Moe.  I tell him I've seen all the others except her.
He goes back out and I hear him calling.  After about 5 minutes, I find Moe,
hiding behind the bed.

Here's what happened, to the best of DH's recollection:

He was watching the movie on TV, and Lizzie came up to him to tell him
something.  Lizzie doesn't ask for too many things, food dish filled and
litterboxes cleaned.  So he goes and gives her food.  The sound of the
crunchies hitting the dish usually bring all the others, Ernie especially,
a-runnin!  But none came.  DH looks about, wondering, when all of a sudden,
he notices the screen is NOT in the window.  AAAAAAAK.  Then Ernie's head
pops up into the window from OUTSIDE (I can imagine a Kilroy version of
Ernie).  He grabs Ernie and hauls him in, apparently by the scruff of the
neck.  Ernie did not appreciate that, and lets out a howl.  When DH gets
Ernie back in, he happens to plop right on top of Moe, who has come to
investigate what all the fuss is about.  This startles Moe, and she runs
off, but DH doesn't see where to, and the window has not been shut yet.  He
shuts the window, and comes to wake me, and the head-count & chase begins.

Ping was outside near our back door, wanting back in.  Tennessee was by the
front corner of the house.  I don't remember where he said Smokey was.  DH
did say that both Tennessee & Smokey tried to run from him.

And, for those of you that are wondering, we do not let our cats outside, as
we live on a major thoroughfare that leads in/out of our fair city, and I've
seen too many squished critters to let our cats out & get anywhere near it.

Moe is so 'traumatized' by Ernie landing on her, she will not come out from
behind the bed.  We finally get her out, and she's fine, but then something
startles her and she darts under the sofa.  It takes us 1/2 an hour to coax
her out, by using the red-dot greebling.  But she is still somewhat spooked,
and any sudden movement sends her back towards the sofa.

We finally wind down from our 'excitement' and decide that it's time for
bed, and we want to take Moe with us to give her time away from the others
to calm her nerves.  Bad thing is, Moe will NOT settle down. She keeps doing
laps around the bed, and trying to knead my sunburned shoulders and doing
what we call 'flippy-head' (flippy-head is like upside-downy-head, but she
isn't laying down when she does it - Moe does it when standing normally,
sitting, and even walking towards us, sometimes even when sitting up like a
meerkat, and it usually causes her to fall over to whichever side she's
flipped her head - it's soooo cute), so finally, after about an hour of
this, I get up and she follows me, and I figure that she doesn't want to be
locked up with us.  I let her out of the bedroom and go back to bed.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

This morning, Moe is back to normal.  Right now she's napping on the
mini-tower right in front of the window that caused all the fuss last night.

We are not opening the lower portion of the windows until we can secure the
screens in better, probably with a couple screws each.  Fortunately, even if
we do permanently secure the screens in, I can still clean the windows as
they are the kind that tilt in from the top if you release the 'catch' -
the sashes can also be completely removed from the frame.

--
The ONE and ONLY
lefthanded-pathetic-paranoid-psychotic-sarcastic-wiseass-ditzy former-blonde
in Bloomington! (And proud of it, too)©
email me at nalee1964 (at) insightbb (dot) com
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