Some time ago, I posted about how Touchy and Hobbes (primarily Hobbes) are able to open doors. I affirmed that they could open doors with handles, and sliding glass and screen doors. I mentioned that I thought it unlikely that they would be able to open doors with round knobs. Well, as it turns out, I was wrong. [Ha!! Take note. It's not often you'll hear those words from me.]
The kitties have been spending most of their time in one of the bathrooms here at Willow's Cottage, while we humans (1) work on constructing their outdoor enclosure and (2) wait for the end of inclement weather in order to construct the aforementioned enclosure. Aside from a tendency to scatter litter on the floor, they are doing just fine (there is no furniture in there for them to scratch, of course), but they hate being confined to one room. They meow and scratch at the door, especially at night, when the nocturnal creatures prefer to be roaming around.
Because the bathroom door closes with a knob, I assumed that they would just be stuck inside making noise, since they lack opposable thumbs and are too short to reach the knob anyway. But these resourceful creatures have somehow managed to get out of the bathroom, repeatedly. It's not a fluke, one-time occurence. Since we humans are always on the other side of the door when they perform their stunt, we can only make a guess as to their methods, but we think that they get up on the counter, and then reach their paws out several inches and wiggle the knob till it turns enough to unlatch the door, then pull the door open and stroll on out. It's crazy. These kitty cats KNOW what they are doing. They have a method and employ it on a regular basis.
The papa went to the hardware store and got some plastic kid-proof door knob covers. The cats have still managed to get the door open at least once. I am not making this up!
I keep telling my mom, it stands to reason that if there ever existed cats that could figure out how to turn door knobs with tiny paws and no opposable thumbs, it would be my cats.
6 comments:
Please get a hidden camera and get this on film. (Though make sure the camera is only running when the cats are alone in the bathroom!)
They got out TWICE just this morning!
Oye! That is amazing. Our Katie had rats that could pull doors open, but they weren't all the way shut. The fact that they can manage those safety door knob covers is really amazing...
Okay, *I* have trouble with the kid-proof door knob covers. Your cats are clearly advanced.
Or they have retractable human thumbs.
Hey, what kind of outdoor enclosure are you constructing? We are trying to find a similar solution for our cats.
And here we were all counting on cats' lack of opposable thumbs as the only check on their inevitable takeover.
I for one welcome our new feline overlords!
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