Someone’s at the doorbell

 

Someone’s at the doorbell

Alexa announces ‘Motion detected at your drive’ which prompts a flick of the ears from Jellicoe. Herschel snores so loudly he probably doesn’t hear it. The dogs don’t react.

When Alexa announces ‘Someone’s at the doorbell’ the cats react as before – that is, hardly at all, but Roxy and Gilbert leap up from wherever they’re snoozing and dash towards the door. They associate that proclamation with visitors and their tails wag enthusiastically as they watch to see who’s coming.

I should explain that we have a ‘baby gate’ at the sitting room door, so that Gilbert is contained downstairs. Simply shutting the door doesn’t work because the cats open it. On the occasions we have neglected to shut the gate he has sneaked quietly upstairs (can you sneak noisily?) to amuse himself by rearranging the bedding and practising a little torn paper engineering.

Thus, when the doorbell announcement comes, they are ready, paws up on the gate, to welcome all comers. Roxy has only ever jumped over once, (I think some particularly enticing food may have been involved) but I think Gilbert will soon realise that he’s big and athletic enough to clear the gate easily.