Originally posted by Ariadne:
I hope the paper shredder did not trim yours cat tail...
Luckily, it didn't--but that's what I was afraid of. (I recently measured his tail and, from his backbone to the tip of the fur, it is 16.5" long!)

I had just bought the shredder--one of those that has the motor top that sits on the trash-can bottom. It has "automatic feed" that just starts by itself when it senses something in the slot. Having just unboxed it, I had put the two parts together, plugged it in, and was reading the next step of the directions. Before I knew what had happened, Foster had hopped into the trash can!

I totally panicked, envisioning his tail being shredded into 1/4" strips, and lunged over to flip the switch. Not having had a chance to read the rest of the instructions, I did not realize that it was a THREE-position switch, with 'off' being in the MIDDLE. So, in my reflex action, I just quickly clicked the switch all the way to the right--which, as it turns out, is REVERSE!

Up until then Foster hadn't known anything was amiss, but unlike 'forward', which has the sensor, 'reverse' just GOES! It made a really LOUD, SCARY noise! In an instant, I realized what I'd done--and now I could envision his tail (or ear) being drawn into the knives from below! Of course, if the noise was so startling and horrible to me (since it was new, I'd never heard it operating before), you can imagine how much louder it sounded to Foster, down in the trash can!

In a FRACTION of a second, before my hand could even get to the switch to click it to the middle, Foster had jumped STRAIGHT UP out of that trash can and was all the way across the room. It scared us both to death! (Evinrude, on the other hand, ambled on over to see what all the commotion was about, then sat up and looked into the shredder's trash can. That cat is so laid-back; nothing bothers him!)

Anyway, poor Foster spent the rest of the night sitting on the back corner of the couch, his eyes fully dilated, constantly staring at the evil shredder as if it could come to life any moment and attack him. He was really skittish and paranoid for the next three or four days. I decided to give him enough time to recover fully before I activate that noise again, so I've got a stack of unwanted credit-card offers piling up next to the shredder...

[This message has been edited by Lucinda (edited June 29, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Lucinda (edited June 29, 2000).]