Escapade

I won't say that Cooper and Maynard have become instant friends.  Our shop cats come home with us for "hurricanes and holidays" as I jokingly tell anybody who asks at the store.  In other words, the only times they come home with us is when the store is closed for a holiday or if there's a significant enough weather event that I'm not comfortable leaving them to their own devices at the store.  

So the shop cats haven't really had a lot of time to bond with our cats at home.  Cooper wants to be friends with everybody, so he runs right up to Maynard and tries to make friends with him, and sometimes that's successful, and sometimes it's not.  There have been a few times when we've witnessed Maynard running around after Cooper, chasing him around the house.  That's when we know that things are cool between them, at least until the next visit home and a whole new adjustment period starts.  

So on July 4th, when Sean was making dinner and I was on the computer placing an online order, my blood ran cold (again) when Sean gravely spoke those seven scary words:  "We need to do a head count."  

Our back door had been sticking ever since we had the house power-washed earlier in the week, and apparently one of us hadn't closed the door all the way when we came into the house.  It was open just a crack, but at that point we didn't know if anyone had noticed.  

I immediately ran through the house looking for places that I knew Cooper hangs out, counting off cats as I went.  Zelda: check. Lionel: check.  Stella: check. Coco: check.  Still no sign of Cooper or Maynard.  

Then, I looked out of our bedroom window and saw a brown lump (which is what he looked like without my glasses) sitting on our grass behind our outside chairs.  It seemed to be eating something.  I told Sean Cooper was in our back yard.  Sean (who is always the cat whisperer in these situations), went out the back door to collect him...

...where he ran smack into Maynard, who was outside the door wanting to be let back in.  (Maynard, at least, knows where his kibble is buttered...)  

All I saw from this was Maynard running through the kitchen door back into the house, eyes wide and startled:  "It wasn't my idea!  Coopie made me do it!"

Sean came in a few minutes later with Cooper in tow.  He had been outside munching on some grass and surveying our house from the back yard.  I think he must have assumed that Sean was coming out to enjoy this glorious day with him, but he didn't protest when Sean picked him up and carried him back into the house.  

For most of the rest of the evening, Cooper spent a bunch of time sniffing the back door and flopping on his back, trying to gain the leverage to open the (now locked) door again.  The poor cat had so much fun out there that he was ready to do it again.  Maynard, not so much.  

While we're glad Cooper has a new "partner in crime," we really hope they choose to do only inside jobs from now on...