A near miss...

[neoow]

I have two Bengal cats, Widget and Pixel who are both indoor cats. They will be 14 years old later this year but are still quite energetic when they want to be. They co-exist with Alfie quite well and both learned from a young age to leave him well alone. They pay Alfie no mind and don't harass him whilst he is in his cage and I separate them when I let him out- they typically get the upstairs and Alfie gets the downstairs. My living room door handle had to be taken off and put back on upside down to help with this, as otherwise Widget could open the door and let himself in.

Anyway, this works well as the cats have everything they need upstairs and it gives Alfie enough room to fly around, get some exercise and generally cause all sorts of mischief.

The other day, Widget was asleep on the sofa in the living room and I needed to let Alfie out so I woke Widget up, gave him some fuss and then shooed him out of the room. I let Alfie out as usual and he flew over to his tree on the dinner table. Then he immediately flew over to his standing tree at the other side of the room. He then flew back to the original tree. That was a bit unusual as he usually stops somewhere to stretch and preen first. All of a sudden, Pixel scurries across the room, looking a bit worried. Last time I'd seen her, she was upstairs and I obviously hadn't noticed her wander in to the living room at some point. Alfie was still flying around because he knew it wasn't right that she was there. Thankfully, I was able to get Pixel to stop running around and picked her up to remove her from the room. Phew! Alfie then settled ok and we carried on with our evening.

I think Pixel was too scared of all the flapping to know what to do but I'm just so glad she didn't try and chase Alfie - or spot him before he spotted her.

The stupid thing is, I normally do check around the rest of the room to make sure I got both of them out. That one moment of complacency could have ended very badly... although I'm honestly not sure who would have come off worse with that one... either way, I felt very guilty for a good while after!

Have you ever slipped up/made a mistake and had a near miss as a result?

[Timbersmom]

I've had more near misses than I like to think about. In this case, all's well that ends well, and I suspect it won't happen again. Things like this will happen, but when it does I think it makes us even more vigilant. I have two maine coon cats. For the most part, they seem more curious about Timber than predatory, but that can change in a heartbeat. Timber on the other hand, is frighteningly fearless when it comes to the cats. I remember once when Timber was in his very large cage (about six feet tall, about 6 inches off the ground. Timber was out as usual and I had went in the bathroom, which is only feet from his cage. I thought the cats were confined to another area as usual. I came out of the bathroom and there was Wilson (one of the cats) inside the bottom of Timber's cage. He was not looking for Timber, just curious about what was in that "forbidden" area it seemed. Timber was rapidly making his way from the outside of the cage (he was on the playtop) to confront the trespasser. I grabbed Wilson and returned him to the other room. I think I was more terrorized than either of them! 

[neoow]

I've done similar in the past- it was quite a few years ago and I was cleaning out Alfie's cage. He was in the cage as the cats were about. I took the bottom tray out and started cleaning that, then for some unknown reason I then took the grill out of the bottom as well and took that outside to wash it off. I heard some commotion because Alfie was jumping around his cage and knocking toys around, walked back in and saw Widget in the bottom of his cage having a good sniff around. I think it was a similar thing to your Wilson - he wasn't phased by or interested in Alfie, he was more interested in this space that he normally can't get to. So I quickly ushered Widget out from the bottom of the cage and put the grill back in place before apologising profusely to Alfie! 😬

[Timbersmom]

Glad I'm not the only one with a nosy cat! Funny thing is, when it comes to his cage, Timber is like a small dog. He seems to have to concept of his size (lack of) or his intruder's superior size and strength. He was headed down to the bottom like he had no idea he wouldn't be the victor in a confrontation. Scary!

[LNCAG]

Great stories of close calls!

I adopted my kitten Zuri back in 2007 and was always super careful to check on where all my pets were before I left for work.  I thought I had witnessed Zuri elsewhere before I closed the bird room door, but somehow, Zuri slipped in un-noticed.  I worked 8 miles away from home but always came home for my hour lunch so I could walk my dog.  I came home, walked the dog, checked on my new kitten... and no kitten.  I also went into the bird room because I liked to give them a fresh fruit or veggie treat whilst I was home for lunch... and there was Zuri, my tiny 10 week old kitten, laying in the middle of the floor of the bird room -- having been in there unsupervised for 4+ hours!!!!  She had all her limbs, paws and eyes intact.  I knew darn well she had probably poked her front legs/paws through their cage bars or at least pressed her little face up against the bars!  All 4 parrots were standing on the very bottom of their cages watching her!  I could have sworn Snickers, my CAG, winked at me like "hey lady, we knew it was just a kitten -- we didn't hurt her!  lol  But seriously, with a territorial macaw and rambunctious YN Amazon... I was so grateful my new kitten was okay and unharmed.  

You can bet I double checked her location after that!  Though she grew up to never bother the parrots and often accompanied me in there during parrot feeding/cage cleaning times.  Like Neoow, I always separated the cats when I let the parrots out loose in the rest of the house.  

[Talon]

I have had close calls. Having always had cats, dogs & birds.  My  son adopted a black shepard/cattle dog many years ago, He was taken to the shelter many states away ( near my daughter who checked him out first) because he killed all the landlords chickens..My son really wanted this dog, he was in a emotional state at that time & allowing him to get a dog I knew in my heart would help him tremendously...I actually called the shelter to ask about the chicken killing since I had 3 parrots, they really couldn't tell me anything...so we took the chance & drove to 12 hours one way to bring him home. He learned on day 1 that the parrots were off limits after one flew by him & he looked interested. He NEVER went after them, doesnt even pay attntion to them. IN fact they perch on the chair & the dogs wait for the leftover food to dropp so they can catch it.   They are out always at the same time while I am home. He just knows & several times when he was asleep ( a black dog) on my black leather couch, my Amazon would fly & land on him thinking he was a couch, he jumps off the couch faster than you can blink!  My greys don't pay attention to my dogs.  & The dogsonly watch NIlah my amazon, cause she will bite them if she feels they are in her way...they just run away.  They are more scared of her , as she's not afraid of anything.

I have had 3 cats over the years, they also learned that the birds were off limit..Again they were more scared of the birds as they know NIlah can bite .  Accidents can happen, but I am always vigilant watching the goings on when all are around us.  We all co-exist, but I don't trust them just in case.