Adventures with Al

I posted a brief bit about our antique kitty, Al E. Cat, on my myspace blog this morning. And I remembered promising to tell the story of the time the Twins gave Al a bath.

I don't remember how it came about that Daniel and Sam were not closely supervised for long enough for this to happen. I am thinking it was one day they awoke from their naps a bit early. (It was eerie to see them sleep. Even in separate rooms, they slept in the same positions, rolled over at the same time, and would awaken at the same instant)

Anyway, it was probably the quiet that alerted me first that mischief MUST be going on. It was way too quiet in the house for my duplicate three year olds to NOT be Up To Something. I discovered my bathroom door was locked and I could hear them earnestly discussing something over the sound of water running in the bathtub. They ignored didn't hear my demands to unlock the door This Instant.

So I used the handy-dandy screwdriver I kept tucked into the top of the door frame From Previous Experiences Just In Case to let myself in. There were suds in the tub. LOTS of suds. Two wet boys, and one very bedraggled, very soapy, very unhappy wet cat.

My first order of business was to rinse the kitty. The Twins had used ALL of the adult shampoo, ALL of the baby shampoo, most of the bottle of some baby wash that touted "not tested on animals", and as I soon discovered, an almost full carton of Mr. Bubble powdered bubblebath.

(I had one of the older kids take the twins to the front bathroom, rinse and dress them.)

I rinsed, rinsed, and rinsed some more. I discovered soapy products weren't the only substances the Twins had subjected Al to: She had also been coated in charcoal powder. The poor kitty was so soapy it took twenty minutes of rinsing under the tub faucet before she quit sudsing. As always, she was amazingly tolerant of the indignities forced upon her.

Once she was rinsed, she was a VERY clean kitty. She wouldn't go NEAR the bathroom for months. She also wouldn't come near ME for months.

I discovered the twins had probably found Al sleeping in the bathroom, and trapped her in the small cupboard where the Mr. Bubble and extra bath supplies were stored. For a reason only known to God and three year olds, they dumped the Mr. Bubble on her. I am sure at some point, they knew they were going to be in Big Trouble if found in possession of a pink cat. So they got out the jar of charcoal powder* and turned the trapped pink kitty into a pink and black kitty. When this didn't exactly turn out as well as they would have liked- they put Al into the tub and began experimenting to find the best substance to use in washing a cat.

The evidence (Mr. Bubble and charcoal powder) in the cupboard was all over the carpeted bathroom. After the cat was rinsed and dried, I had the rest of the mess to clean up. By the time I was done, my sense of humor had kicked in and the twins survived the event.

(* Charcoal powder was kept in the bathroom because Mr C had seen a TV program touting the benefits of brushing ones teeth with it)