A man with dirty boots installed a new furnace in my apartment today. It took about three hours and scared Roly Poly (formerly known as Fauxpaw) to death. About an hour after the man with dirty boots left I found her hiding in the room that used to be a half bathroom, hidden between a 50 pound bag of chicken mash, a 25 pound bag of wild bird seed, and a 10 pound bag of rabbit food.
I finally convinced her to come out, and when she walked out into the hallway the new furnace kicked in, sending a huge burst of air right onto her and she quickly did one of those hide your tail, turn around with all your hair sticking up moves, trying to figure out what was happening.
So first she was terrified of the man with the dirty boots, and now she is terrified of the heat coming out of the vents. When I walked into the bathroom a few hours later, she was hiding behind the toilet. She finally came downstairs while I was cooking dinner, and she stayed in the kitchen with me the whole time (the kitchen is one of two rooms that she won't go in, the other being the bunny room.)
If I was a cat, I would be scared of the new furnace too. The air coming out of the vents now comes out with three times more force than it used to. I couldn't even hear Kory talking when it was on. It sounds like a tornado...except for in my room. In my room, there is also a high pitched noise that accompanies the tornado. So now not only do I have a toilet that screams for five minutes after you flush it, I now have a furnace that sends high pitched wails through the vent TWO FEET from my bed. Roly Poly should be happy that she's not allowed in my room.
One more thing about my new furnace. It smells disgusting. The man with dirty boots warned us that it was going to smoke and smell the first time it kicked on. Something about new furnaces having to burn something off. So he opened up the doors, I opened up a window, and closed the vents in my bedroom so my birds would not be poisoned. Sure enough, some smoke came out and it smelled pretty darn bad. But guess what, the heat just kicked on, and along with the deafening high pitched sound came a whif of the POISONOUS GAS.
And one more thing about the man with dirty boots. Even though he tracked mud onto my stairs (even though I have a door mat inside and outside of the door) he was kind enough to pick up a coat and scarf that had fallen on the floor as I rushed downstairs to answer the door after he had woken me up way too early in the morning.