This is Maddox

Sometimes cats baffle me. Meet Maddox.

For those of you who haven't met him, he is
the MOST RAMBUNCTIOUS PIECE OF FUR
that I have ever known. For awhile Charles and
I attributed it to his kittenhood, but now that he is
1.5, that doesn't work. He's always been crazy,
getting into things he shouldn't, batting food out
of our mouths (he loves starch, I often give him bowls
and vegetables and he scarfs them up), picking
on the other animals. He likes to bop the dog on
the head as she walks by, I'm still surprised that
Maggie hasn't retaliated and bit him. After all,
he'd just be a snack to her. When we first moved
into this house, Maddox learned quickly to put
his paw under a closet door to pull it open, allowing
himself and the others access to sleeping on our
clothes, hiding mice and balls in our shoes, and
just generally causing trouble.

Once the baby came, we took to locking the animals
out of all the bedrooms. We didn't want to deal with
hair everywhere, or worrying if the baby had a
sleeping companion. A few nights ago, I was up in
the night, and after I went back to bed, the bedroom
door banged open and in came Maddox. I assumed
that I just hadn't shut the door all the way, and he
opened it. That happened twice that night. Then a
few nights ago Charles was up early studying, heard
a crash and came to investigate. The bedroom door
was wide open, and Maddox was curled up with
me on the bed. That's when we realized that the punk
learned how to open the door!


We've never seen him in action, but he's done
it a few more times. He must run as fast as
possible down the hallway and leap up to the
door handle and swing it open, because it's loud.
I never thought we'd have to lock the our cats
out of the bedroom. (Take THAT Jan! Can your
cat do that?)