Mischievous Mittens

Rich and I were sitting in the living room catching up on each other's days after he got home late one Tuesday night, when he says something along the lines of "Your cat is a pain."  (We have a tendency to do that thing where the kids/animals are automatically the other spouse's when the critter/kid has been acting up, even though they all technically belong to both of us.) 

So I proceed to ask Rich which cat.   I assume he means Mittens, or 'Mitt' for short, but on a rare occasion he pretends that Busch is mine.  (Not that she is well behaved, he just knows how much I don't care for her evil-spirited ways and would give her away in a heartbeat if she were 'mine'.) 

He confirms that he is referring to Mitt and I ask what it is that he did that was so bad.  Rich goes on to tell me he's always a stinker, but lately he's been breaking eggs in the barn.  My immediate thought, was "No way!  Cats can't break eggs!" (I'm thinking more traditional ways that cats might try to break an egg...cats don't have opposable thumbs and their mouths are too small to go around a large egg, right?) 

But of course I know that Rich has a reason for thinking that Mitt is doing this, so I hear him out.  He says he can't say for sure, but he thinks the cat is rolling the eggs out of the nest and off the bales of hay so they'll fall and break.  Ingenious!!  (For a brief moment I'm kinda proud that this is 'my' cat as I'm thinking "I sure have one smart kitty!") 

My proud moment is short-lived, though, since I know those eggs are for our consumption, not the cat's.  In the end, Rich informs me that he thinks he's fixed this situation with Mitt.  He built up a barrier around the nest, so Mittens can no longer roll the eggs out.  Good thing we humans are still smarter!! ;-)  (So now Mitt can go back to being 'our' cat... at least until he causes trouble again...)