# Sigma the Adventurer...



## tanyuh (Jun 7, 2003)

As I mentioned elsewhere in the forum, I recently got a new kitty (about 18 months) to be a buddy for my current cat Sigma, a solid grey guy about six years old. Sigma has always been quite the adventurous cat and loves going outside on his leash. He was found on the streets of Memphis (a story I told on this forum when it happened, actually), and since day one was always wanting to escape from the house. In 2006, I moved from Memphis to Edmonton, Canada (with three cats in a U-Haul - fun stuff) into a nice 3 bedroom house from which Sigma escaped twice. I lived on a very busy street, so twice I thought he was a goner. But I found him sitting under a tree and chilling out like he was at home, heh. I finished school in Edmonton, went thru a serious (12 year) breakup "losing" two cats in the process, then met some awesome Dutch guy and moved to The Netherlands last September with Sigma (who was absolutely flawless on the plane - I had him with me in a carrier under the seat). (Sigma that is, not the Dutch guy )

So anyway.....

It turns out that most doors in Holland are horizontal handles and not doorknobs. Perfect for mischievious cats. And Sigma has learned to open them quite adeptly. I didn't think he'd be able to open the front door tho because you have to pull the handle down and pull the door toward you at the same time. But one time when I was sitting in the livingroom, I heard him squawking. He'd sometimes randomly do that when he was bored, so I called at him but he didn't come like usual. So I went to check it out and he'd escaped from the front door! The door leads to a hallway with another apartment door, and stairs that go down to another apartment and a hallway before the door that leads outside. But upstairs in our halllway is a window above a utility closet thinger, and Sigma jumped out of the window onto the roof below. So he was crying because he couldn't get back up or jump down (thankfully!). I promptly freaked out (haha) and ended up having to drag a nightstand downstairs and stand on it to reach him on the roof. After that we've had to lock the front door so he can't escape anymore. But in order to lock the door from inside, you have to use the key. Strange, I know, but I guess that's how doors are here. So that's episode one.

Epsidode 2, last night:

Now, naturally I just left the key in the door so I could unlock/lock it whenever without having to search for the keys. Also, the door has no handle to turn on the outside, just a thing you can push. So you can't get in from the outside if you just close the door and don't lock it, because you still need the key to turn the handle. But if it's not locked, Sigma can escape. And also, if a key is in the lock from the inside, you can't put another key in it from the outside because the inside key blocks it. I hope this makes sense  

So we go to leave for Roy's birthday-dinner last night and when he went to lock the door he couldn't because I had left the key in the lock from the inside... So we can't lock the door, nor can we get in. Uh oh. Not good. Two cats trapped in the house, one of them a new guy and the other an escape artist. We live on the second floor and all the windows are closed because of the cats, so we'd either have to get a locksmith (at 7:30pm on Saturday night), or get a ladder and bust a window. We went to Roy's parents house and started making some calls. They can't get ahold of the superintendant of our building, but the locksmith says it might be possible to take the lock off with some tools. So my boyfriend and his dad grab some tools and head back to our apartment. And what do they find? The door open. And Sigma sitting right inside, just looking at them, all innocent-like. Sheesh! Luckily that window above the roof was closed and no one saw that our door was open and closed it. So I guess Sigma got out, looked around and saw he had no where to go, got bored, and went back inside. But I can't believe our luck! We had joked that we should try to get Sigma to open the door for us, but figured we'd never be able to get a cat to do something on command, but he opened it on his own! Haha! Silly cat. I can laugh about it now, but he really could've gotten lost  From now on, no more leaving the key in the lock!!


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## seashell (Dec 5, 2003)

What a funny story.  Sounds like Sigma is almost human! If he had thumbs he could use the can opener and get his own dinner :lol: :lol: 

seashell


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