November 10, 2016 – Clever is as Clever does.

          We have a new feral cat that I described in great detail in my October 16, 2016, blog.  The cat hasn’t told us what name he likes yet from the few we have tried: No-name-slob, or Tom Cat, or Golden Eyes.  But, he makes his presence known after a while when we call out any sort of name to him.

          I bet he would come to the sound of ‘cat cheerios’ shaken in the empty coffee can we use to scoop them out. [I haven’t tried that yet.]

          He has a new favorite place which I am not too happy about, but so far, no harm done.  I have a very large pot on the back patio step and he curls up in a portion of it.  There is a hosta and a heuchera [coral bells] in the pot and a vacant place where an annual plant was this summer.  He hasn’t ruined them – YET.

When I open the kitchen slider drapes in the morning I usually find him sound asleep there. 

          But, it is getting cold at night and this afternoon I made a “cat house” out of a very large cardboard box that I had gotten one of those mattress foam toppers in.  A few weeks ago I had bought the topper and had set aside the box thinking it would be good for either a make-shift cold frame or a cat house.  Then I put my subconscious mind to work on how to make it.

          Having mentally pondered my project on and off for the last few weeks I was ready to tackle it.  I remembered I had some plastic in the shed and retrieved that.

I took 4 mil plastic and wrapped it like a present sealing it all around with clear packing tape except one end I left it lose for the time being. 

I then took a knife and cut an entrance hole in the cardboard box in that end, folded the plastic down and sealed it as well. 

I next slit the plastic in a starburst fashion over the place where I had cut the entrance hole and pulled the starburst plastic tips inside and taped them so that the box was complete sealed with plastic, including the cat entrance opening edges. 

The objective was to seal the cardboard box with plastic so that the moisture, rain, or snow would not make it a soggy mess.  Possibly I will get at least until spring out of it – then I can toss it out and make a fresh one in the fall.

          As I am working on this project in the middle of the living room, my husband is watching intently. He has learned if I am working on a project he watches and best keep quiet.  If he starts to give unsolicited advice, I immediately say – “Then you do it.”  From years of experience, he knows that I am pretty good at these projects and he often gets to witness some of my “surprise-even-myself” results.

          When finished I turn it upright with the opening towards him and declared,   “Clever is as clever does”.

          “Yeah, you have always been pretty clever. What are you going to put inside it?” he replies.

I locate an old towel and fold it and place it in the bottom of box and then take the homemade “cat house” outside to the patio.  I place it next to where “Golden eyes” is snoozing in the big patio pot.   He wakes, does that “ballerina stretch with one hind leg, then another, then a huge arching of his back”.  He is NOW AWAKE.  He turns around and looks the ‘cat house’ over a bit, then sits and yawns.  

I didn’t expect conversation out of cat, but he at least noticed the new structure.  I talk to the cat and tell him how nice and cozy it will be when it gets cold tonight.  [Part of me wonders if everyone talks to animals the way my husband and I do.  Sometimes I honestly think they understand the English language.]   Just before I leave I put a couple bricks on the top to hold it down just in case the wind should come up.

Hopefully cat will take advantage of it.   We shall see in the morning when I sweep open the drapes.  He’ll either be sleeping with the hosta and heuchera or in the Clever-is-as-Clever-does cathouse.