Outdoor Critter In; Indoor Critters Out

I'm working in the yard yesterday and have the two garage doors open. Every time I return to the garage for something there's a rustling from the open bag of sunflower seeds and a chipmunk with two very stuffed cheeks pops out and scurries around the corner heading for the wood pile. He does this whenever the garage door is open for more than five minutes. He loves it when I cut the grass! The sound of the mower is like ringing the dinner bell.

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Later, while I'm putting up the pea poles in the garden, Terry comes home and goes in to the house with her things. Then she comes out through the garage to see what I'm up to and pick some cherry tomatoes--of which we have an abundance.

I finish and head for the garage only to see a very familiar pussy cat on the driveway. Apparently, Terry had not closed the door between the foyer and the garage very tightly and we had an escape underway. Julie is the one I spotted on the driveway but when I called her name she headed back to the garage lickety-split. Shadow was under the front porch and she followed Julie back into the garage. When I shouted at them to get back in the house, they shot up the stairs--followed by Chester who was under the ATV (probably intrigued by the smell of chipmunk). When I got to the door, all three were acting innocent as hell. "We weren't outside! No sir! You didn't see us out there. Must be that beer you had. Now, can we have a crunchy?"

For Shadow and Chester this is the first time they've exited the house via the garage door. Previously they've gotten out on the deck but never stepped off the wood. Julie has been more adventurous. Jess had Julie semi-trained to walk on a leash when she was younger. ("Semi-trained" because--well--she's a cat! The leash did provide a tether when she would chase squirrels up the tree.) Anyway, Julie's shot through the door, on to the deck, and out on to the lawn; even leading me on a chase around the house (past a very startled opossum, I might add). She also once got out the front door when I didn't ensure it was closed properly and the wind blew it open. On that occasion she darted into the house as I pulled up in the truck and then hid downstairs, nonchalantly coming up when I came in the house as if to prove she hadn't been outside at all.