Now for a relating of this morning’s cat adventure.

I bought some slow-acting super glue at Walgreens the other day in order to repair my prescription sunglasses. This morning I finally felt confident enough with my hands being stable and there being enough sunlight in the house to do it without messing up, so I settled in at the kitchen table with the glue, the eyeglass frames, the lens, and a sheet of white printer paper. As I expected, the sounds of me opening the package of glue attracted the cats.

Myu laid down on the table beside me to watch the show. Ronin got right in the middle of my work area. I ignored Myu and distracted Ronin by throwing the plastic packaging on the floor and giving him a shove off the table. That looked like it was going to buy me a few minutes, so I set to work trying out the glue dispenser on the paper to figure out how much pressure to apply to get just the right amount to come out. Then I set to work on the frames.

I had no problem getting a tiny drop of glue on the frames and carefully slipping the lens into place without getting any glue on it, but then, just as both hands were busy trying to apply a little pressure to the two pieces to get them to hold together, Ronin jumps back up on the table. In a flash, he grabbed the cap to the glue container and took off with it. I couldn’t exactly put the glasses down until I knew the two pieces were joined right and sticking well, so he batted it around in the hall for the few seconds that took. I then laid the glasses down out of harm’s way and went after the cap thief.

Ronin loves nothing more than to be pursued, so he picked up the cap in his mouth and flew down the hall to the bedroom lickety-split. While I couldn’t see him, I knew he was headed under the bed with it, because that’s where he hides everything he steals. I heard the sound of a small plastic cap dropping just as he got through the bedroom door, so I attempted to distract him from picking it up again by screaming. Yes, screaming … quite loudly too. It worked. He hustled under the bed minus his latest plasitc treasure, which I quickly grabbed before he had a chance to come to his senses and rush out to get it again.

All of this was just the distraction that Myu needed to put her paw on the scrap sheet of paper, right on the small dabs of glue I had been practicing with. Because it had been sitting there throughout all the previous shenanigans, it was getting tacky and ready to set, which it did. As I exited the bedroom, all I saw was a black blur flying around the corner into the living room … a black blur with a sheet of printer paper stuck to it. I couldn’t very well just drop the glue cap and chase after her, so I took a moment to recap the glue and put it out of harm’s way as well. Meanwhile, I hear Myu tearing around the house losing her little cat mind.

It took me 15 minutes to corner her. Though the sheet of paper was somewhat shredded on the edges, it was still quite whole and wholly stuck to Myu’s paw. Have you ever tried to get a piece of paper that has been super-glued to a cat’s paw off said paw? I didn’t think so. Cornering her was the easy part. I then had to basically sit on her to get her to hold still while I carefully attempted to rip the paper away from the part that was stuck, and then I had to equally carefully rub olive oil into that spot to get the paper and some of the glue to come loose.

There’s still a little paper and glue stuck to her, but I think we both had enough of me trying to get it off. Maybe I’ll try again later when everyone has calmed down. At the moment, neither cat is calm. Ronin is peeved because he managed to make off with a plastic trinket and then it was stolen from him, and Myu is still thoroughly freaked out about the glue incident. Both of them are ripping around the house at full speed. I expect something else will get destroyed any moment now. Well, at least I have super glue. I can fix almost anything now.

And my sunglasses are 100% perfect again, which means I can officially drive during the day without being blinded by the sun. Yippee! I think I’ll go get dressed, and as soon as the monsters have settled down again, I am off to the art store.