It took Grafite less than three minutes to destroy what it had taken me three weeks to create. I woke up at 3:47 in the morning to the unmistakable sound of his scratch echoing down the empty hall. I got up ready to commit a cat-icide.
— GRAFITE!!! Do not scratch the door! Mommy is sleeping, RONNNNC, ya hear? Sleep-ing! I mean, was, before you tore down the door. Do you see this? I spent sleepless nights designing this so that you WOULDN’T scratch the door! So, how about doing your part, huh? Do not scratch the door, Grafite!
My anti-scratch strategy was to devise a gadget that consisted of a hen-house wire fence attached to a little wooden frame. I went for the most discreet size possible, in order to prevent the gadget from becoming too heavy. After all, I would have to set it up and take it down from the door every day. Everything was perfect. But, to avoid damaging the doorpost too much, I only placed two little fixing hooks to the upper part of the frame, in the hopes that Grafite would understand that I clearly didn’t want him to scratch the door.
The problem is that cats are cunning. They learn fast, much faster than dogs—but they only do what they want to do. And Grafite wants mom to pet him in the middle of the night. It’s as simple as that. So, he used his paws to pull the bottom part of the fencing down, eased himself between the frame and the doorpost, raised his arms and scratched the door obstinately until I got up.
— ENOUGH!!! How can mommy sleep, Grafite?!? You are going to wake up the whole house! Stop scratching now! Don’t you see the fencing? It means do not scratch! No, do you understand? Go sleep with your brothers and let me rest!
I put a weight in each of the lower corners of the frame—they would have to do until morning when I could use the electric drill to fix two more supporting hooks. I went back to my room and laid down praying for sleep to come quickly. I dreamt that I was riding a lilac winged horse. The wind swept through my hair going róc, róc, róc… RÓC?!?
I’m gonna kill that cat.
