Kitties of the World Ain't Nothin' but Trouble

The culprit

Mr. Ginley and I sat watching TV one night last week, when suddenly, Maggie jumped off my lap and dove into a hole in the back of the couch.

I guess I first need to answer the question of why there is a hole in the couch, since it's only six years old. I guess you would have to ask that furniture store why they sell such shoddy merchandise. It was not an inexpensive couch, in terms of what we paid for it. But it was certainly not made like its predecessor, the battleship of a couch that lasted 25 years. The hole resulted from broken wood that caused the seat to separate from the back, thereby creating a gap through which small mammals can squeeze themselves.

Now, back to the story.

My first inclination was to let Maggie emerge from the couch on her own. But Mr. Ginley pointed out that there could be a nail sticking up in there somewhere.

So...we pulled out the couch and turned it upside down until the guilty party emerged.

Meanwhile, we peered over to see the space where the couch had been. And yes, it had obviously been quite a while since we'd vacuumed back there. After sweeping up and restoring the couch (plus the lamp we'd knocked over and anything else in the vicinity we'd had to move), we positioned blankets and a pillow over the place where the gap was.

Sure enough, Maggie came along and stared at the place where she knew the hole was. Then looked at us, then back at the couch. Fortunately, she abandoned whatever diabolical plans she was pondering, because the blankets remained undisturbed.

The next day, we went do Bed, Bath & Beyond and purchased, at some expense (but with a 20% off coupon), a cover for our couch. After a fair amount of wrangling and a few failed attempts, we managed to figure out how it was supposed to go.

Problem solved.

That night, as we sat watching TV, we heard a rustling coming from my father-in-law's old easy chair.

Mr. Ginley rose and looked all around it, then cocked an ear.

"Is she in there?" I inquired.

"Yep." He said. "But I don't think there's anything in there that she can hurt herself on."

So Maggie got her little victory, and we got ours.

And peace reigns again in the Casa de Ginley.