Just a note to advise cat owners about a serious danger which may be lurking in your home, unnoticed. We live in a basement apartment with lots of windows. Each of the windows had blinds on them when we moved in. One night while we were sitting watching TV, our littlest one, Daisy jumped from the window ledge and got caught up in the pull-string of the blind. Luckily we were right there to disentangle her, or she would surely have strangled herself.

We now have every one of the blind pulls tied in intermittent knots from the point where the string enters the blind frame when closed and touching the top of the window ledge. This way, no cat's head can get caught in the string. You can also wind the string around the blind framework if you prefer. Just keep it out of your cat's reach.

Please, please check your blinds. Even if you've never had a problem, there's always the possibility of something tragic happening. Better to be safe than sorry.

This article is Copyright © Kathleen Mortensen, and printed with permission of the author.
August 26, 1998