Snoopy, Just Living Up To Her Name

Never A Dull Moment Around Here

A couple of years ago, we adopted a beautiful female cat from the local pound and, because of her soft gray fur, named her Misty. It took about three days to realize that Misty was a misnomer. That cat was into everything.

If there was a closet, she had to rummage through it; if there was a box, she had to find out what was in it; if there was a piece of paper or a blanket, she had to crawl under it, and, if something was closed, Misty would not rest until she found a way to open it. It was plain to us that she had to be renamed, so, Snoopy she became, and Snoopy she will remain.

Last summer, we took Snoopy on a camping trip with us to Suttle Lake near Sisters, Oregon. After a few days, we decided to move on over to Bend, a town about 35 miles away. After battening down everything moveable, except Snoopy, we locked the door of our 23-foot fifth wheeler and soon arrived at the KOA camp in Bend.

Entering the RV--we found NO Snoopy. I was sure she had managed to escape before we left Suttle Lake, but my husband was just as sure that he had seen her on our bed just before he locked the door.

He kept running back and forth calling, "Snoopy, Snoopy." We quickly searched every drawer and closet. No Snoopy. We tried enticing her with tuna, her favorite food. No luck. We even sat down and pretended to be reading a book, an activity that usually brings her running so that she can help turn pages, regardless of whether or not we are ready for the pages to be turned.

Finally, we heard a pitiful meow that seemed to come from under the fifth wheel. We looked under the floorboards in the closet, but nothing. We checked each of the closets again to no avail.

My husband got down on his knees and shone a light behind the toilet. About half way up was a round hole where the workings to the toilet are. Snoopy had managed to crawl in there head first, and was almost totally hidden from view. There wasn't enough room for her to turn around and get out, and she was stuck tight.

To solve the problem, Snoopy’s owner, (not me - she’s his cat when she does something wrong,) finally had to take the toilet completely loose, bring it into the front room, and lay it down. He then tried twisting Snoopy this way and that and finally decided he would have to dismantle the toilet completely, perhaps even shatter it, and went out to the pickup for tools.

While he was gone, I reached in a smaller hole and found one of her paws and thought maybe I could get her out that way. It scared her so much she jerked her feet up so I couldn't reach them, and that somehow turned her body just a little until I could see her face through the bigger hole. She saw me then, and squirmed her way out, although how she made it, I'll never know. It resembled a breech birth where the doctor reaches in and turns the baby. Afterwards, you wonder how that big baby ever came out of such a little place. Snoopy weighs over 10 pounds.

Anyway, Snoopy didn't go near the bathroom for quite a while, even though I had stuffed the hole so she couldn't get in it again. She got on my husband’s side of the bed and cowered under the bedspread until we got home. Then she celebrated by going into our bathroom and chewing up a whole roll of toilet paper while we were unloading the trailer.

The whole thing sounds funny now, but it sure wasn't when we were figuring out whether to take a hammer to the toilet and break it in pieces to get her out. :)

See my latest Associated Content article on
Unique Uses For Plastic Drinking Straws at:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/21268/plastic_straws_unique_uses_fun_projects.html