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I agree about black cats in the dark. I thought of it a lot when we had 3 black cats and at night the power would go off and I would say...oh great...the house is pitch black and we have 3 black cats in here somewhere.....so I just put a flashlight in each room we would be in during a storm and that helped.
Merlin used to deliberately wait until it was dark and stormy. Then he would find a way of escaping and darting across the lawn and hding in the woods. Because of coyotes, we never let our cats out...No choice in the matter around here.
SO, I would have to stand on the rear deck with a flashlight, scanning the woods, looking like an idiot, shouting "MErrrrrllll"! over and over. The Rules were it had to be spoken in a certain way, being meowed, or he would not look, just to make it more humiliating for me.
Then, when everything was done EXACTLY RIGHT, he would graciously look at the flashlight, his eyes would light up so I could see them. Then he would WAIT THERE and ALLOW me to go out in the rain and dark to carry him inside, as he purred (Laughed).
One night he got me into terrible trouble. I thought I saw him heading under the deck, so went after him. I ran headlong into the HUGEST SKUNK I ever saw. I was startled, and RAN around the house to get away from him.
But I startled HIM, too..and he ran away the OTHER way and we met again in the front yard, then we both reversed diretions and ran back the other way. At some point he disappeared, but Merlin was watching the whole thing from the bushes, and my wife saw it all from the porch.
Good thing the neighbors are afraid to look over here.