No animals were harmed in the making of this blog

My senior year of college, I lived with my sweet friend Leslie in an apartment just off campus.  It was such a fun year!  One of my most hilarious memories involves a certain stray cat that found a home and some food from our neighbors.  (Oh, our neighbors... that's a story for another day!)  The problem with that scenario is that Leslie and I both share a curse of terrible allergies.  I'm personally allergic to just about every four-legged animal that moves.  That includes dogs, cats, rabbits, etc.  As a result, I'm not really what you would call an "animal lover".  I mean, I don't hate animals or anything.  I actually had a couple of dogs that I really liked when I was growing up.  But on the whole, not really an animal lover.

Now back to that cat.  Leslie was also not fond of the cat and a couple of times the cat would be laying in front of our door when we tried to leave.  One night, Leslie was heading out and she opened the door to leave, then screamed and slammed the door.  My first thought was "serial killer???".   Leslie said told me the cat was trying to get in our apartment.  

I quickly remembered some great advice given to me by my father.  It's a sure-fire way to get rid of critters and other animals you want to get rid of.  I assured Leslie that I would take care of that cat!

Dad's humane trick? Why cayenne pepper of course! So we opened the door and shooed away the cat.  Then I sprinkled pepper all around our front door.  A little while later, I was  alone in our apartment and it was quiet as I was studying.  (I did actually study a little.)  Just when I had forgotten about our four-legged friend, I heard the common sound of a cat in pain.  I died laughing thinking about that cat with a mouth full of pepper.  

The cat moved.  He apparently found a home at a nearby apartment complex. 

I thought about this story yesterday when my dad noticed a little "present" left for us by a neighborhood cat or dog on our deck.  My dad's solution was to sprinkle our deck with cayenne pepper.  We'll teach that cat to poop on our deck!