Published Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1:55 PM
Updated Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1:58 PM

 

Watts Line 03/20/08

You’ve got to be kidding


My sister bought a house (yes, she’s the one person who bought a house this year ) and is having some repairs and renovations done. Last week the work turned to the master bathroom that is upstairs and located directly over the family room.

The need for repair became evident the week she moved in. She’d been about to take a shower, turned the water on and stepped into the stall. She was happily showering away in her wonderful new house when she heard a banging on the door and the screams of her 13-year-old son Alex.

“Mom, Mom, come quick.” She grabbed a robe and followed him downstairs to find Alex and Toby the Cat staring up at the ceiling at one of the recessed ceiling lights. Water was pouring out of the fixture. The shower, it seemed, had a leak.

She was more than a little annoyed, went round and round with the realtors and former owners over the repairs and finally decided the best thing to do was just go ahead and fix the shower and work out the details of who was going to pay later.

So she called Richard the Renovator and his helper. They started work at 7 a.m. about a week later. They tugged and sawed and replaced all day and were at it until after 9 p.m. Exhausted but finally finished, had horsed the new shower into the tight hole.

“It was an exact fit, very tight, and they really had to struggle to get it in the space,” Sister said.

About an hour later she and Alex were sitting downstairs watching a little TV when Alex asked,

“Where’s Toby?”

“He’s probably still outside,” my sister said, knowing that the cat was still having fun exploring his new neighborhood. “He’ll probably be at the door soon.”

And so they continued to watch TV.

A little later they heard Toby meow. They checked, but he wasn’t at the door so they went back to watching TV.

A few minutes later the meow came again.

They looked up. And sure enough, there was another meow, coming from directly above them.

“Where is he?” Alex asked.

“Oh no,” my sister said. “It can’t be.”

Another meow. “Oh no, no, no,” she muttered as they ran up the stairs.

They looked for Toby. They found no Toby, but they could hear Toby.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” my sister said.

Toby’s meow was coming from underneath the Jacuzzi tub which was also the ceiling of the family room.

My sister immediately ran to the phone and called the repairman who was in a neighboring town at the WalMart. with his co-worker.

“Richard, we have a BIG BIG problem,” she told him.

“What,” he asked with trepidation probably thinking the leak was still there.

“The cat is sealed up under the Jacuzzi.”

Richard was completely silent for a few seconds, then asked, “Did you say the cat is under the Jacuzzi?”

My sister says she could hear Richard’s co-worker laugh out loud in the background.

“We’ll be right there,” he said urgently.

Soon they were back at her door, tools in hand, panic on Richard’s face, humor on the other guy’s and both really tired from a long day of work.

They studied the situation. Taking the stall back out would wreck it and the wall again, so they jacked it up enough to let Toby out. Which they did.

Two hours later Toby strolled out, licked a paw, looked up at my sister and casually walked downstairs.

Cats are so cool.

Contact Judy Watts at 873-9424 ext. 220 or jwatts@journalscene.com.