I'm sure you have heard a "Shaggy Dog" story at some time in your life and I'm going to tell you a "Shaggy Cat" story, because it's about our rescue cat, "Abbey", and she is definitely shaggy
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With the COVID situation we have had to curtail our usual travel agenda and are spending much more time at home than previous years. We had cats before and our last cat, "Katie", died of old age several years ago. With all of our traveling we decided to do without a pet. Sadie and Katie never suffered boarding as we always found someone to live in our house and mind the cats but it is a worry.
Anyway, it doesn't look like traveling will return to our past "Normal" any time soon; maybe never. So we decided to search for a cat, completed the adoption procedures and went looking. We talked about getting a kitten and dreaded the period of over the top activities, thought about a senior cat and looked at a few. Long story short, we fell in love with "Jonny", a three year old female tabby, jumped through the hoops and brought her home. Well, "Jonny" didn't seem like an appropriate name for a girl cat, so we renamed her "Abbey". No good reason, it just seemed to fit. Without knowing much about her history, other than she had been chipped and spayed, had all her shots, or so we thought. A trip to our local vet, got her a couple more shots and her exam revealed nothing to be concerned about. In order to acclimate Abbey, we restricted her to the laundry room for a couple of days. She seemed quite nervous, and it took awhile for her to find all the rooms in the house and of course all of the hidey-holes and places to prevent detection. It didn't take too long to coax her out by shaking a bag of treats but she has remained quite a recluse, especially after what the vet must have subjected her to. To make matters worse, I think I resemble the vet and she seems more inclined to be with Jain. She is definitely not a lap cat and maybe she just doesn't like me. She does, sometimes, sleep on our bed.
One of her hidey-holes was, not surprising, behind the washer and dryer in the laundry room. [Have you looked behind yours recently?] Concerned that she might get tangled up in the machinery, prompted research on methods to make that space inaccessible. I decided on a shelf and a tight partition that would make it impossible for her to get back there. I acquired the material and plan and proceeded to study various wall mounts and attachments for the partition. Well (the shaggy cat story begins) the wall behind your washer and dryer is full of electrical circuits and plumbing. I have had, for years, a very sophisticated combination laser level, stud and metal detector which has had very little use. A new battery and review of the instruction/safety manual didn't do much for my confidence. Some experimentation only heightened my anxiety. I continued to have nightmares about piercing some plumbing or shorting out an electrical circuit that would require cutting a large hole in the wall, interruption of essential laundry appliances and the requisite repairs and painting. For two days, I fretted over this challenge of my resources and bravery.
I did what all suffering husbands do and slept on it (a couple of nights). I awoke this morning from an epiphany in a dream. I'll tell you about my brilliant solution in hopes that some other suffering handyman will benefit and go forth with confidence on a future adventure. The solution was so simple, I can't believe it's not on Google Search or YouTube.
You know the punch line of a Shaggy Dog story is always a slap on the forehead experience, right?
Drum roll, please….
I turned the shelf brackets around, attached them to the washer and dryer and pushed both back into position against the wall.
