Cleaning Time

polaroid in the darkroom
Originally uploaded by argusmaniac.

Last night I was getting the trash ready to take out, and I heard a meow coming from the darkroom. I immediately knew it was our black furry cat, Phantom. I was in there the previous evening developing film, and I was talking on the phone to my friend Bill. I saw her climb into the open cabinet below the enlarger while I was on the phone. I forgot to see if she was still there when I closed the door an hour or so later.

Of course, as soon as I heard her plaintive meow, I opened the door and she came running out, very distressed. I also knew that if she had been in there for almost 24 hours, a mess was going to be there. Actually, she's a very fastidious cat, so the the mess was confined to a foam anti-fatigue mat on the tile floor. That got tossed, and I scrubbed down the floor, too. While I was at it, I took out all of the plastic and glass bottles, put the good empty ones in boxes, tossed the cruddy ones, and took stock of what I had under the sink. Threw out a few other things, too, such as some 16x20 plastic trays that had never been used but had gone very brittle.

From now on, I will make sure that I keep the cabinet doors shut, and keep an eye out for a black cat that likes to curl up in confined spaces.