Adventures of Chloe and Oscar: Keeping a Watchful Eye on Your Pets
It’s also been relatively slow when it comes to events with the locals. They’ve just been taking a lot of naps and fighting over who gets to sleep where on my bed in relation to the position of the sun. This week’s blog post is a little different from the ones I’ve shared in the last weeks. Instead of focusing on my own two cats, I thought I would share an experience I had last week with another pet because I think it’s a great lesson for pet owners and something to be aware of.
Our story begins with me getting home from the grocery one night. As I was bringing in my groceries and offerings for the locals (cat treats for Chloe and Oscar), I noticed a small little furry face in the window next to the door to my apartment building. It was a cat. I thought it was odd that a cat was just sitting in the hallway of our building. When I opened the door I didn’t let it out because I was fairly certain it was my neighbor’s cat. Another reason for doing this is because people in my complex like to engage in road rage when they should really be driving a smooth 15mph. I didn’t want anything to happen to the cat and we’ve had coyote sightings before. I was able to maneuver myself and the groceries in the building without letting the cat out. I could tell he was really confused and even though I’ve seen him sit out on their patio before just chilling, it didn’t explain how he ended up in the building. You could tell that this poor cat had all of the regrets. All of them. He was fairly timid but wasn’t hostile so I put my groceries in my apartment and went back down to see if I could help him out. I knocked on my neighbor’s door… the cat was sitting at the front door, meowing, and scratching at it because he wanted back in. However, no one answers the door even though both of their cars are there. Unfortunately, I had to give up on my attempts at helping this cat because there was not much else I could do and for the time being and he was at least safe in our building.
This whole situation just had me thinking about keeping an eye on your pet even if they are more of an outdoor animal or fancy themselves to be one( Chloe falls in this category). I feel like it is even more important when living in an apartment complex where there are a lot of people coming and going so you do not typically build “neighborly” relationships with people. They might not think twice if they see a “random” animal which turns out to be someone’s pet. Even in a neighborhood setting, you still want to keep an eye out for your pet so that they don’t get in a situation that could be dangerous. It makes me happy that I do not have to really worry about my two cats getting out before they realize the mistake they’ve made. Chloe sometimes like to attempt at hallway lurking, but as soon as she gets out the door she realizes that she has made a mistake and goes right back in my apartment.
Do your pets like to make escape attempts or go on unplanned adventures?
Be sure to check out the amazing animals at Texas Humane Heroes and their upcoming events!