By Linda Goldston
Mercury News
This story begins when Katherine Filice of Gilroy adopted a feral kitten from Town Cats in Morgan Hill.
She named him Pixel and learned right away that he could still be "a little wild sometimes." So Katherine's husband, Dean, asked that Pixel, who's now 1-year-old, be kept in a spare room at night and when Katherine wasn't at home "so he didn't claw too much of our furniture."
That didn't stop Pixel from falling in love with Katherine and adopting her as his own. (Katherine is creative director at a graphic design agency, which was the inspiration for his name.)
Almost nightly, Pixel climbs into Katherine's lap and "just stares my husband down — as if he is saying, 'She's mine, and there
Video: Pixel opens the door is nothing you can do about it.'''
That includes keeping little Pixel locked up.
Katherine and Dean came home one day, and Pixel was out of his room, the door left open. The couple feared a burglar had broken in.
But nothing else was amiss and after a few days of finding Pixel out of his room when they came home, they had their suspect.
"We realized he must be doing it!" Katherine said.
Pixel had learned how to turn the handle and open the door. He jumps up, pulls down on the lever until the door pulls open a crack. Then Pixel drops down and listens at the door — making sure the coast is clear and the big bad husband is not there — before venturing out.
Not to be outdone, Dean tried stretching
a bungee cord to Pixel's door and the door knob across the hall "so he can't open the door when he isn't allowed out," Katherine said. "It is a total man thing — I am surprised he didn't use duct tape."
Still, friends and family refused to believe that Pixel was actually doing this. That's when Katherine decided to set up a video camera to catch her feline escape artist in the act. The video is so charming — and funny.
"It turns out that he only lets himself out near the time I am supposed to be home," Katherine said. "If just my husband is home, he stays in his room, as if he knows he would get in trouble."
Pixel has learned to stay away from the family's 13-year-old German shepherd, Franklin, a female who is blind, deaf and hates cats. And when Katherine is outside with her horse, Styx, Pixel yells — meows — at them from a window.
Ever active and curious, Pixel also likes to play fetch — and catch when he gets bored with that.
"He jumps on my lap and drops a toy mouse," Katherine said. "I throw it and he runs after it and brings it back to my lap. He will do this for hours.
"One time I didn't throw the mouse far enough, and he jumped up and caught it between his paws, so now sometimes we play catch and sometimes we play fetch. I am worried someday he will find a real mouse and drop it into my lap."
Most endearing to Katherine — and frankly to me — was when Pixel went up to her daughter Aly's room and found one of her stuffed kittens.
"He brought it to me and ever since that has been his 'buddy.' He will put that little stuffed kitten in his bed and sleep with it. I was shocked to see out of the dozens of stuffed toys, he picked a little gray kitten."
Alas, Pixel mostly has the run of the house.
No doubt he'll be moving those bungee cords from his room to the couple's bedroom — at least when Dean is there — in no time.
Mercury News
This story begins when Katherine Filice of Gilroy adopted a feral kitten from Town Cats in Morgan Hill.
She named him Pixel and learned right away that he could still be "a little wild sometimes." So Katherine's husband, Dean, asked that Pixel, who's now 1-year-old, be kept in a spare room at night and when Katherine wasn't at home "so he didn't claw too much of our furniture."
That didn't stop Pixel from falling in love with Katherine and adopting her as his own. (Katherine is creative director at a graphic design agency, which was the inspiration for his name.)
Almost nightly, Pixel climbs into Katherine's lap and "just stares my husband down — as if he is saying, 'She's mine, and there
Video: Pixel opens the door is nothing you can do about it.'''
That includes keeping little Pixel locked up.
Katherine and Dean came home one day, and Pixel was out of his room, the door left open. The couple feared a burglar had broken in.
But nothing else was amiss and after a few days of finding Pixel out of his room when they came home, they had their suspect.
"We realized he must be doing it!" Katherine said.
Pixel had learned how to turn the handle and open the door. He jumps up, pulls down on the lever until the door pulls open a crack. Then Pixel drops down and listens at the door — making sure the coast is clear and the big bad husband is not there — before venturing out.
Not to be outdone, Dean tried stretching
a bungee cord to Pixel's door and the door knob across the hall "so he can't open the door when he isn't allowed out," Katherine said. "It is a total man thing — I am surprised he didn't use duct tape."
Still, friends and family refused to believe that Pixel was actually doing this. That's when Katherine decided to set up a video camera to catch her feline escape artist in the act. The video is so charming — and funny.
"It turns out that he only lets himself out near the time I am supposed to be home," Katherine said. "If just my husband is home, he stays in his room, as if he knows he would get in trouble."
Pixel has learned to stay away from the family's 13-year-old German shepherd, Franklin, a female who is blind, deaf and hates cats. And when Katherine is outside with her horse, Styx, Pixel yells — meows — at them from a window.
Ever active and curious, Pixel also likes to play fetch — and catch when he gets bored with that.
"He jumps on my lap and drops a toy mouse," Katherine said. "I throw it and he runs after it and brings it back to my lap. He will do this for hours.
"One time I didn't throw the mouse far enough, and he jumped up and caught it between his paws, so now sometimes we play catch and sometimes we play fetch. I am worried someday he will find a real mouse and drop it into my lap."
Most endearing to Katherine — and frankly to me — was when Pixel went up to her daughter Aly's room and found one of her stuffed kittens.
"He brought it to me and ever since that has been his 'buddy.' He will put that little stuffed kitten in his bed and sleep with it. I was shocked to see out of the dozens of stuffed toys, he picked a little gray kitten."
Alas, Pixel mostly has the run of the house.
No doubt he'll be moving those bungee cords from his room to the couple's bedroom — at least when Dean is there — in no time.
