Bad Manners and Brimstone

I heard what I thought was someone trying a key in our front door. When I went to check it out I found our part Burmese cat Dink standing on the old door handle with her paws wrapped around the deadbolt twisting from side to side trying to open the door. She has also shut doors on me and got in between me and the chair, put her paws between my shoulders and pushed me off the chair.

Funny you should mention Burmese.  The trash killer in my post above was Burmese; first one I ever had.  They're a very entertaining (sometimes mortifying) breed.

This one's second-hand, as it was my sister's cat.  Sis and then-BIL were painting their home, using a light color.  They'd left the paint can lid lying around.  They didn't realize the felines had taken any notice until they were done, and found a bunch of weirdly-shaped paint splotches, concentrated around the bathroom.  There they found their black cat calmly sitting...on her white-painted butt.  She'd sat on the lid and then left white kitty butt-prints around the place. 

Sis had nothing good to say about de-painting the cat.

For a while there seemed to be an epidemic of this where I live.  One car will stop at a red light.  The driver behind him, apparently believing the red light didn't apply to him, would swerve around the first car and run the light.  Who expects the SECOND car in line to run the light?  Got pretty scary for a while, until police started cracking down on that.

There's also confusion with people who drive in both NYC and neighboring NJ.  NJ's rule is right on red anywhere unless there's a sign prohibiting it.  NYC's rule is NO right on red anywhere unless a sign permits it.  Makes for some interesting interactions sometimes.

I'm in NYC, but a very suburban borough.  Around here we just see general trick or treating - some areas more than others.  A friend who lives only a few miles away gets nobody, but my block gets large waves of kids over the whole afternoon.  I do find that kids seem to be lazier than Sis and I were as kids - we never let stairs or other impediments to front doors deter us, but kids these days don't like to climb the porch steps to my front door.  They stand below, in the driveway and hold their bags open, asking that I drop the candy.  That was a few years ago, though.  Today the kids climbed the stairs.  I refilled my treating bowl 4 times. (And the cat, who thinks he needs to explore the whole world, only escaped twice.)

People do have parties, but generally on the weekend.  And now some weirdo somewhere around here is setting off fireworks.  Just the noisy ones. 

I have a 14 year old part Burmese part dog, extremely intelligent cat who I once caught sitting on the door handle with her paws wrapped around the deadbolt twisting it from side to side. Dink also likes to play fetch.

Loki is a 13 year old cat who's parents we suspect were brother & sister & also cousins. He is so very cute though.

Cleoratra is a black & white hooded rat, the dominant one. Her sister Brie was one half of a Berkshire twin named after Brie & Nikki Bella. A very sweet rat.

Cleo's sons, Speedy was named because before his eyes were open he was the only one who wouldn't line up for a photo, he was off in a hurry, very sweet in nature, loves to cuddle and groom me while I give him head scratches. Magellan as soon as his eyes opened he was off exploring. He has become more of a homebody in his teenage years, also very sweet in nature, loves to nibble on my nails.

Four baby girl rats 10 weeks old, we're still getting to know them but their personalities are developing fast. All named after wrestlers except for Birdie who is named after Brie Bella and Daniel Bryan's baby. Joey and Candice named after "the world's cutest tag-team" and Nattie is a white pink eyed rat.

Re the part-Burmese... The behaviors you describe definitely come from the Burm half.  My full Burm Mickey is extremely intelligent, as were several others I've had.  And they ALL played fetch.

I used to keep a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke in the office fridge for my afternoon caffeine fix (cheaper than vending machine cans!). I labeled it and kept it tied up in a plastic bag.  I started to notice on many days that the level in the bottle was lower than it should have been.  I e-mailed HR, saying (almost as a joke) that it was too bad we didn't have a spy cam in the kitchen.

A few days later, facilities put up a new clock in the kitchen.  Upon close inspection, we noticed that the loop of the 6 contained a camera, pointed toward the fridges.  Wow, they took my suggestion!

The next time I noticed that my soda had been abducted, I emailed HR and told them.

Not long after, a member of the cleaning staff was fired.  After that, my soda was safe.