the cat situation, part 2

jodi and I became more and more frustrated with the next door cats.

once, while we had company and were peacefully sitting down to dinner at our picnic table outside, we noticed one of the cats walking along the gravel beside our home. jodi briskly stood up from the dinner table and stomped - i mean STOMPED - over to where the cat was milling around and shouted "hey!" she picked up a stone to scare it away, but it became keen to her plot and hopped over the cinder block fence that separates our home from the neighbor's. we all laughed at how clearly this whole poop situation was getting to her.

throughout the ordeal, we've gotten a lot of advice from our friends. someone told us there was an animal leash law in our county. after looking into it, though, we realized it didn't apply to private property.

another person told us that orange peels help to deter cats. so the next morning, the cinder block wall was lined with orange rinds. as we checked on the wall that afternoon, we saw the back cat defiantly parading along the length of it, stepping over the orange rinds.

i believe it was at that point jodi tried to talk me into getting a BB gun. I had to tell her that we'd have a difficult time explaining BBs embedded in our neighbor's cat to our local Humane Society and PETA.

august 30, 2005 was jodi's birthday - her favorite gift that day was a Super Soaker - because she planned to use it on our feline friends. she tried it out the next morning. the orange cat prowled onto our yard as jodi hid around the corner, peeking at it. she quickly stepped out and fired a burst of water.... but the cat was too fast and escaped before being hit.

it was time to talk to our neighbor....