In the closet

The hall closet on the second floor of our house is a little unusual: there are four built-in drawers topped by two shelves. In order to open the drawers, the door must be completely open and flat against the wall.

This closet has intrigued Spenser since the day we moved into the house. A closed door is absolutely irresistible to a cat and Spenser has been known to sit outside the door for hours on end. When the door is finally - FINALLY! OH JOY! - opened, he seems baffled that there is not a room behind it.

One day last week, one of us left the hall closet door open for just a few minutes and when I started to close the door, I realized that I was being watched:


There Spenser was, crouching on a pile of towels and when I reached in to pick him up, thinking that he was unable to get himself out, he took a swipe at me. Obviously he liked hunkering down in the closet, so I left him alone.

He has climbed in there several times over the past few days. I think he is rather proud that at the age of 14 he can still jump four feet to get onto the shelf, and it provides him with a neat little hideaway.