a tacky tale

Around here it is not unusual for one's house to fill with ladybugs this time of year. But instead of ladybugs this year I got flies. Zillions of them. Ick. Since I live with so many critters I didn't want to use poison so I went out and got some of those tacky (in both senses of the word) fly strips thinking "no one will ever see them."

. . . the Dash-and-Dart bunny escape plan.

The next morning, however, brought a surprise visit from a colleague so I quickly hung the now fly-covered strip on a plastic hanger in the utility room and forgot about it. That evening, while I was dinking about in the utility room, my ancient cat Pickle lept onto the ironing board which brought her smack-dab into contact with the sticky fly-laden strip.

Down came the ticky-tacky strip, bringing the rattly plastic hanger with it and sticking it all together: ancient kitty, fly strip, and rattly hanger. Kitty of course went ballistic, doing laps around the house, tormented by both her cargo and the accompanying noise. The dogs didn't recognize her as her and gave chase. Woof Woof through the house. The housebunnies hadn't a clue what was happening but with two large dogs and a plastic hanger running through the house they of course implemented the Dash-and-Dart bunny escape plan.

If you have not recently seen a bunny implementing an escape plan, do recall that it involves numerous zigs and zags, and of course with two panicky bunnies, there were zigs atop zags and and collisions and general bunny mayhem.

I of course was running after the whole crew, trying to rescue my poor geriatric kitty and tripping over everyone else. After a few full laps about -- its a circular floorplan --I remembered that if I just stood still they would come around again and I could grab kitty, which I did and was of course instantly and thoroughly stuck to her, to the flies, and to the plastic hanger . . . but that is another story.

---

I just found this in my archives. Alas, ancient kitty is no longer with us. She died in my arms, purring and making biscuits, several summers ago at the ripe old age of 20. Here is a pic of the two of us, and a handsome bunny friend, in our youth.

The ladybugs have returned to a very warm welcome, and they put me in mind of this story.

Why do the ladybugs move in? Find out from the Ladybug Lady.





:: this post was included in the 1001 Cats Blogs Carnival at All Tips and Tricks.