This story certainly made Pat and I laugh.

First off I should explain how our windows are set up. We have windows with a bottom portion that swings up and out to open. There are screens on them, with a little trap door in the screen to out your hand through to push the window open. I guess it's like that because it rains quite a bit here and windows that open up and out block the rain from coming in when the window is open.

So a few nights ago Pat had gone to bed and I stayed up late to fiddle about with Photoshop. I was in my own little world, that place I tend to go when I'm really interested in something I'm learning.

Suddenly I heard Pat scream, "Noooooo". It scared the living daylights out of me. Partly because I was so absorbed in what I was doing, and partly because Pat is not the type to overreact to things. If he screams "No!" like that then you know something is very wrong.

I bolted out of my chair, a sudden burst of adrenaline, banging my knee on the desk hard enough to give me a large purple bruise afterwards. Then I ran, tripping over the throw rug, towards the bedroom. All kinds of scenarios ran through my mind of what could be wrong. The worst of which was the thought that one of the boys had died or seriously injured themselves.

I threw open the door and flicked the light on, "What's wrong?". I looked towards the window and saw Chewie's rather large behind stuck in the trap door of the screen, and Pat tugging on his hind legs trying to get him back in. Apparently our little escape artist had his plan to escape through the window foiled by his large behind!

We got him back in and everything was fine. Pat and I sat there, calming our nerves and petting Chewie because he seemed to have gotten a good scare out of the experience, too. Pat explained that he screamed like that because he was half-asleep and he looked back at the window and his foggy mind thought Chewie was actually in the final stages of getting out, which would be a pretty bad situation for him since he has no outdoor experience unsupervised. Then, as if on cue we started to laugh hysterically at the memory of Chewie's butt framed by the little trap door, with his hind legs kicking for all they were worth. I'm still laughing at it now just picturing it!

Copyright © Rebecca Parkin
March 15, 2001