A conversation with cats: Two views

First, let me set the scene: Yesterday afternoon, I went to shower and dress to get ready for Sorena’s concert. I always shower with the door slightly open so the cats can come in; otherwise, they yowl outside the door and annoy the crap out of me. Gracie usually waits until the shower ends before yowling for me to come pet her. Tig will sometimes jump on the toilet and yowl to see if he can get me to pop my head out of the curtain. So, things being what they are, I get into the shower, and almost immediately, the yowling commences. This is what I heard:

TIGGER: MROWL! MROWL! [Let me in!]

MERYL: Come inside! The door’s open.

GRACIE: MROW! MROW! MROW! [Let me in!]

MERYL: Gracie, the door is OPEN. Just come INSIDE.

TIGGER AND GRACIE: MROWL! MROWL! MROWL! [No, really, let me in!]

MERYL: Will you just come in the door and shut up!

[Variations of above for ten minutes. Shower ends, I start drying myself. I am one of those people who refuses to get out of the tub until I’m mostly dry, as I hate dripping on the bathmats, so while I am drying myself, the yowling continues, as does my telling them both to shut up. By this time, Tig is on the toilet seat, yowling vigorously at me.]

TIGGER: [Runs to bathroom closet door] MROWL! MROWL! [Let me into the closet!]

MERYL: Shut UP!

GRACIE [From inside bathroom closet] MROW! MROW! [Let me out of the closet!]

MERYL: Oh. [Opens door. Gracie exits.]

Which just goes to show you: Just when you think you understand cat language, you discover that you know absolutely nothing about what they’re saying. Basically, the translations above should have been variations on:

GRACIE: “Hey! I’m stuck in the closet! Let me out!”
TIGGER: “Hey! Gracie’s stuck in the closet! Let her out!”

This was, without a doubt, my most annoying shower ever. I’m thinking it was Gracie’s most annoying one as well.

The picture in this post is of her in the kitchen pantry, where she’s liked to nest since she first came home from the vet’s after her long illness. I let her mess up the plastic bags because, well, I spoil her. She’s going to hate spring cleaning.