I'm glad to know my cat's not the only one with "closed door" issues. LOL Bob is BAD. (in a good way)

BTW, Comfort came out okay, they were on the west side of the storm and got only a little wind and almost no rain.

Next time, take some time off before you talk to Elvis!

Aw man I have the same problem. And my cat always insists jumping up on my knees.

Look at those gorgeous eyes!!!
My dog always has to come help me pee too...
maybe it's a pack thing....
Glad you got a day off.. you needed it!!!

Just hope that your kitties don't gang up on you and decide to go all french-peasants-storming-the-Bastille on you like mine does. Say, for instance, I want the bathroom door closed while I shower so I don't freeze in my dank cave of an apartment. This apparently offends all cats. However, my beloved Beaubula will meow for a while and then lower his head and ram it repeatedly into the door. And lo, the door opens...eventually. I'm not sure if the door latch is faulty or it just cowers when faced with Beau's 30 lbs of orange tabbiness. A bit of both I think.

By the way, you should move to Canada. Autumn is almost here and it's just about sweater weather.

The cats know that the secrets of the path to world domination are behind closed doors. Therefore, they have orders to prevent the existence of closed doors. Really.

I have five cats in the small room.

I can remember back when they would wait til Thanksgiving to put out the Christmas stuff. Then it became Halloween. Now, after Labor Day?

Ya know, soon they'll just leave it up year round and we'll learn to ignore it.

It really is a cat thang. Our bathroom door is so scratched up, even after we put up carpet on the door to slow them down. It don't work.

It's just that they're afraid they're going to miss something important. What the important is, I have no idea. You'd think after all these years, they'd get a clue.

My 3 kitties do the same thing! Again, glad to know it isn't just my weird-o cats with the bathroom issues.

We have the same problem..but with only one very demanding cat, a linebacker bulldog and a pissy pug....then you get that dreaded preformance anxiety and shy bladder....lol!!!

for some reason, my cat never wanted to know what was going on, just if you were going to feed her or not. if you made the mistake of being the first one awake, suddenly you are the FEEDER! and the FEEDER! needs to be followed at all times until the FOOD! comes. this includes potty time.

Me: Isis, its 5am, you dont want food yet
Isis: Food now bitch. im gonna sniff it and eat it later (cat translation, meoooow meow? murrrrrrrrrow)
Me: no, let mom feed you
Isis: food now bitch (meoooow murrrrrrrrrrrow, scratch, scratch, cute face, meooooooow)
Me: oh fine.

So why did you close the door in the first place?

Usually, it seems that it's not so much that our kitties want to be on the other side of the closed door as they just want the *option*. Izzy will scratchscratchscratch until you open the door. Then, she will step halfway in, sniff, and walk away. Until you close the door. Then... scratchscratchscratch. Repeat as needed.

Kitties.

My Sophie is so privileged that she must sit on your lap while you use the toilet. She rolls around and demands to be pet. In fact, "potty time" is about the only time we are graced with her affections.

I have the same thing at my house except it's accompanied by a constant "MamaMamaMamaMama..." soundtrack - my 21 month old. Try to finish up with a baby on your lap. NOT an easy feat!

P.S. I luvluvLUV your blog. Follow it faithfully. I saw you post on the livejournal knitting board and almost shouted out loud at work "Hey, it's Laurie!!!!"

I posted on the livejournal knitting board?

there are apparantly crazy aunt purl wannabees.

and so it begins.

Most importantly here..........You collected your mail!

You should have used the new kitty toys to distract them while you hid behind your closed door!

Okay - we have a 5 month old lab who weighs 47 pounds and insists on joining you in the veeeeery small bathroom. When you can get the door closed before she arrives she then throws her weight upon the door and lays right in front of it...which you forgot when you open the door and then trip over this lug across the doorway - it is very lovely. Provides laughs for all that are there.

Who would want to impersonate me? In the past week, I've only written about bathroom issues and porn and booty. The highlight of my month? WATCHING A TV SHOW. I'm sad. I'm just saying.

Oh! Crystal! The cats loooooved their toys, and the box you sent them in!! I have the funniest pictures. And I got you some very similar dog toys, which was kind of SPOOKY. I may even mail them one day. Even SPOOKIER. heh.

That is so true...and then one day, if you want to have kids, they will join the party in the bathroom!

I saw a t-shirt that made me think of you:

http://www.whitetrashpalace.com/donotdranddi.html

Cats and bathrooms... Mine think they must pee or poo when I scoop the litter box.

Kittenzilla *giggles* Is that like Kitten Kong? http://homepage.ntlworld.com/m.hodder/kittenkong.htm

How is the not smoking thing going? How on earth are you NOT blogging about it?

Glad they liked them. Opie and Abbey will be very pleased that they finally got them.

My Katie also does the crying and meowing thing. So I let her in, and she's like "Jesus Christ, you are peeing. Why in the world do I want to be in here for _that_? Jesus. You should have said something. Gross!" and then she leaves.

I get little white paws under the door. And then when one's in and the other's out, I get one cat with white paws on the outside of the door, and another set on the inside of the door.

The dog never tries to get in if I've closed the door, but she follows me everywhere, so sometimes, she has to assist.

I always wondered if it was just my cat that did that - I'm glad it's not :) Love your blog :)

i'm freaking out over the halloween decorations. it's still 80 degrees! in friggin' new england! it's not crisp halloween spooky weather.

so don't even talk to me about christmas

I think Scout figures, "If I have to pee in public, so do you."

I used to be, and still am, a huge open-door girl. I like open bedroom doors, open front and back doors, and open bathroom doors. So, my previous roommate (A Girl) and I were so comfortable with each other that we used to take shits with the door open, often with the other person in the bathroom, and Titan (and Taj, my roommate's dog) got used to that. And now I have Roommate, who is A Boy, and so the bathroom door stays closed for obvious reasons, and therefore Titan SITS OUTSIDE THE DOOR AND WHINES. Like a siren. And there's nothing better than having a German Shepherd making siren noises illustrate to Roommate, who is as I have mentioned A Boy, just how long I spend in the bathroom every day.

Both my cats do the same thing, and I've always thought that the bathroom attraction is that for once, I'm a captive audience and cannot avoid giving the cats my undivided attention and "loving" on them as they walk back and forth in front of my knees and rub my calves and swish their tails. (Hey, look! Mommy is sitting down in that little smelly room again, where she has nothing to do but pet us -- come on, let's go!) Since I live alone, I don't even bother closing the door anymore....

When I was growing up I had a cat named Bunny who insisted on being in the bathroom with me at all times. She took it a step further, however, and would open the cupboard door with her paw and sit and stare intently under the bottom shelf while I was doing my business.

Who knows what might have jumped out at me if she wasn't there......

I always talk to The King when I go to the bathroom.

Every now and then I get to play catch under the bathroom door--they'll bat in a fuzzy mouse toy or poofy ball thing (sort of like a pom pom) and I'll sit there and smack it back out witht he book I took in with me....

Yeah - one of mine does the cupboard door thing, too. They also do that in the kitchen at night when I'm trying to sleep, sometimes actually crawling into the cupboards and moving around in there for awhile. Talk about heart-pounding terror when you're half-asleep and not expecting to hear cabinet doors open and close in the middle of the night in your single-occupancy home. Sometimes I curse the day the secretary at work gave me that first kitten....

I'm so glad I only have one with that problem... But she is one insistant cat, you'd never guess 8 lbs of fur could be that pushy...

Ha! My cats do that, too. If they are feeling patient, however, they just wait outside the door without meaowing - which is pretty dangerous at three in the morning. Someone's bound to get stepped on if they do that!

We love to follow our people into the little room, too. Humans must be supervised at all times, you know, so they get it right. Besides, they might have some Fancy Feast in there, you never can tell...

I was in a Hallmark store weeks ago and saw snowperson figurines for sale. I was truly scared. I am so not ready for Christmas, either. I'm considering a boycott. ;)

My cats would do the same thing as yours - clearly any closed door is an Offense To Their Being. I caved once or twice and let them follow me into the bathroom, but I did, however, draw the line when my cat decided to rub up against my still-wet, freshly-shaven legs one day. Fool me once and all that. :)

Just this morning Paddington stuck his snout under the door and growled repeatedly at A for daring to use the "secret" (aka guest) bathroom. Cats and dogs: so much more alike than they'd ever admit.

Yes, my two cats do the same thing. It makes me laugh.

I agree whole-heartedly about the Christmas thing. I was looking through a catalog the other day and came across the pages and pages of Christmas cards and thought "I don't want to do this yet." I mean, come on! You don't really need to be reminded of Christmas for 4 whole months a year.

Monkey will use my bathroom time to use the facilities himself -however, if he feels the bathroom litterbox is not up to his standards, he will not go to one of the two other boxes in the apartment, he will climb into the tub and pee over the drain. Right down the drain, too - he is quite careful about positioning himself. And I can't really blame him - I tried to teach him to use the toilet himself, but at the last step he couldn't get it and started peeing in the garbage can. So I'm fine with tub drain, it's much easier to clean.

Ok..I'm going nuts. I so thought it was a pic I had seen on your blog and the person's name had the "laur" part in it. See, that's what I get for coming out of the lurking woodwork and commenting!

Yes, closed doors are forbidden in catworld. Cats know something interesting happens behind closed doors, like the bedroom...never mind.

Perhaps we could put kittie doors on the bathroom and they would cease to find it interesting, because they would be allowed to enter.

In my house, those are called "potty parties". Just thought I'd let you know.

My gosh, I'm cryin' from laughing so hard! Separation anxiety: We had a cat who would run along the lake shore crying whenever we took the canoe out; he wouldn't allow the bathroom door to be closed when anyone used it - got very troublesome when we had guests since the b-room is right (as in immediately) off the living room.

I saw christmas decorations at Big Lots! two weeks ago, September 10th. Makes me really s/mad.

Ah cats. The door is shut? One can open it the other puts her paw underneath and mewls. My friends have the same problem.

Cats! Mine not only wants in when you shut the door for a bit of alone time on the potty, if you let her IN and close the door - THEN SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT THAT NEEDS HER NOSE ON IT is going on in other parts of the house and that needs her immediate attention - until you close the door again. geez louise Good thing I can reach the door knob from where I sit!

It's a cat conspiracy I tell ya!

Oh my gosh, my cats...Bert and Felix are separated from birth from your cats. They do not tolerate a closed door. Nope. They know how to open them up if I don't listen. At night, they get one chance to wake me up and then out they go. I have to put something in front of the door when I kick them out.

The first time my brother (he is deaf) came to visit after I got the pets I told him the deal. If you go to the bathroom you have to take Bert with you. "I am NOT going to take the cat to the bathroom!" "Ok," I said. Then it happened. David went into the bathroom, shut the door and then I saw Bert. He threw himself against the door and it flew open and there was my brother peeing away. "HEY, HEY, HEY!!!" I just laughed and told David that he should have listened to me.

So glad to see that my cats aren't the only ones that do that. My dog does that too.

My Jack (cat) also has this funny (not so funny) thing that he does where even though everyone else in the entire household is up and dressed and having coffee and laughing and singing and serving pancakes and whatever, he WAITS FOR ME (loudly) to get up and feed him, like nobody else can find the food. Weirdo!

So glad you had a weekend of relaxation finally!! A girl needs it! I would have enjoyed the pictures of CAP at work on a "crazy" day, though...

I am saving your honesty is the best policy. It will make a fine monologue for my autumnal "back off or I will melt down" overload confrontation. This event has not been scheduled, but I spy openings in late October to early November.

As is appropriate, I will send you royalties for the performance of your script as we near production. The single performance will be for an audience of one, and there is no fee for admission.

Chocolate work for you? Wine's just so hard to mail.

my sister has a cat named Enid who not only needs to be in the bathroom with you, needs to use her litter box next to the toilet while you are in the bathroom. It is very weird to try to pee with a cat sitting next to you in her litter box peeing, while watching you intently.

Oh my stars, Priscilla! I laughed so hard, I had white wine coming out of my nose. Ouchy. Glad you got 3 whole days off. Boy, did you need it.

By the way, it's not just cats. My poodle, all 54lbs of her, follows me into the bathroom too. They just crack up at work when she does this.

It's like they can sense it, huh? My cats do the same thing. So.Annoying. Unless, however, I turn the shower on. Then no one within a 5 mile radius is even remotely interested in the bathroom. Or the room for that matter.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm...just going about our business as usual. Nope, don't want to go into the bathroom. No sir."

I was in Stop and Shop this evening and there was a giant (8ft tall?) clear ornament with a snowman in it and it was snowing. I found that so depressing that I said to another woman, "Is it legal to put up Christmas decorations before Halloween?" She was upset, too. I don't even want to see Halloween stuff until October. I want the endless summer. That must be why I live in the Northeast!

I am so glad you got a day off!!!

Also, we talked about Christmas and I have an answer to these issues. Talk to me about the solution! Don't move to Canada without me!!!

I have cats and little kids, neither let me pee alone. Though God forbid I ever interrupt one of them.

would it ease your mind to know that you could do your Bidness in my bathroom in peace, despite the kitteness of my house? (2 cats). i have two young(11 & 13) male children (humans) who reek in unappreciated ways (just wait) and the cats tend to avoid the bathroom unless they're passing through to the other bedroom. the cats would leave you alone til you sat on the sofa, then one would sit on you, and the other would attack your feet. a change of pace, i'd say!

To mis-quote Ogden Nash, "A Door is what a Cat is perpetually on the wrong side of."

If it makes you feel any better, those of us in retail dread the arrival of holiday merch more than any shopper can imagine.

One of our cats insists on accompanying me into the bathroom whenever I take a shower. I think she assumes I'm too stupid to remember all of the steps in the process.

I vote to keep the Christmas decs out of the stores until *after* Halloween, at least. After Thanksgiving would be ideal, but the odds of that happening are about as good as my showering without direct feline supervision.

What is it about cats following you and everyone that is at your house to the bathroom?... its not like I follow him to the litter box. Even if its someone he doesnt know he howls on the outside of the door till you let him in... then if you let him in the first place he wants out.. when your doing bidness... make up your mind already which side of the door you want to be on!

My fish is constantly doing the same thing to me when I try to pee with the door shut.

ohhhhyessssss!!
My youngest cat (B)Olivia would greet me at the door after my 2 hour commute and proceed to give me the 411 on what happened with the other 3 whilst I raced to the bathroom.Im mostly a door open gal myself but sometimes I gotta have some me go time!! I found that a nice game of Q-tip soccer under the door helps distract the furry little butts....

At least they can't open the door all by themselves! My cats can do that. Trouble taught Velvet how to do it (thank you very much!) and now, all guests in our house must be forewarned that it is usually best to just pick up a random cat and walk into the bathroom when you go or you will face possibly having the door pulled open and have two felines staring at you (along with everyone else in the room) while you enjoy your private time.

i thought i was out of the woods when my youngest learned how to close the door. no dice. my smallest dog has decided to velcro himself to my leg. he just sits and stares. (he's a mixbreed terrier. he has issues.) to top it all off, we are taming some feral kittens before taking them for adoption. so yesterday? i had two kittens and a crate in a bathroom about the size of yours. two dogs and two kids were positioned right outside the door.

*sigh*

I live in a cave. I was wondering "who the h-ll gets a KNEE aneurysm?"

Then I googled. Sign #376 your health is gone and you're living on borrowed time.

hiya,

i was just tld about your blog - oo, yes very good indeed!

my cat used to follow me, now it's the toddler and dog. (sadly, the cat took a permanent hike) when we lived in Botswana the dog used to come to the pub with me, and would confuse all around by coming to toilet with me. these were out the back drop style, so I wasn't too concerned with dog-hygeine issues...

i'll be coming back here regularly. I lnked to you, I hope you don't mind.

best wishes,

c.

I also get the bathroom thing. Thought my cats were just retarded. I guess not.........

sounds like my kids!!!!

This is cool, you have to try it. I guessed 51438, and this game guessed it! See it here - http://www.funbrain.com/guess/