Droopy v. house

Droopy is the sweetest cat of the bunch, but he is not allowed outside. We found him as a kitten in a neighbor's wheel well, and every time he shoots out the front door he makes a wild run to return to his native homeland: the underside of a car.

On Sunday the rain had stopped, and we brought out the ladder and rollers to work on painting the house. Droopy squirted out the door as we were going in and out, and Leif threw up his hands, following him from car to car in the driveway. The cat finally ran into the neighbor's garage and hid where we weren't comfortable pursuing. I kept painting. Leif was annoyed to be the only person chasing the cat.

"Why is it not more urgent to you that Droopy got out?" he asked.

"Because we're all outside, so he's safer, and he'll come out eventually," I said. 

My back was to the driveway while I painted the wall of the front porch, so I didn't see what happened next, but Leif yelped and suddenly Droopy leaped up and slammed into the wall next to me, panicking, legs pinwheeling like a cartoon cat as he tried to run vertically up the outside of the house. I grabbed him and he thrashed around like a fish, slamming us into every freshly painted surface, shredding my arms and legs and coating himself with white paint, until I finally wrestled the front door open and he launched himself inside. He sprinted through the entire house before we managed to catch him and fight him into the bathtub. He stood on his hind legs, face pressed hard into me as I bent over and washed the paint off of him with warm water. He finally calmed down enough for us to wrap him in a towel like a baby and carry him out to the living room. 

The floor was criss-crossed with white paw prints. The concrete porch and stairs were splattered with white paint. The wall was covered in claw gouges and orange fur. Droopy hopped up onto the couch and started drying himself off, purring.

He is fired from house painting. 

Do we know what scared him so badly? We do not.

Did it stop him from trying to jet outside every time we open the door? NO, IT DID NOT.

Unrepentant animal.