My Best Prank

 We are a family that prank each other. Nothing big, really. Just stupid things. Like wrapping birthday presents in multiple boxes (or with zip ties), putting googly eyed dinosaur stickers on things in the house, turning pictures upside down when you come to visit, etc. 

Dumb things.

One of the biggest pranks pulled to date was the yearly birthday balloons when I was growing up. I hate balloons (no I will not go more in depth) and so my parents would fill my room with balloons or otherwise try to surprise me with a bunch of balloons on my birthday. 

One year, my parents set up a very OBVIOUS drop of balloons and I found it before it got me. I was loudly lording it over them at my birthday breakfast and my mom just goes, "Yeah, you caught us. Grab the syrup from the pantry, would you?" And when I opened the pantry it was FILLED TO THE CEILING with balloons that fell down all over me. 

"Good one, Mom."

I've never gotten them back for it.

UNTIL TODAY.

My dad and I have this running joke that he gives my cats a secret phone so he can text them to act up. If I complain the cats are being crazy, it's because he told them to do it. He will send me texts telling Cat Benatar to demand more treats and then say, "Oops! That was meant for Cat!" It's silly.

He even went so far as to send me one of his old flip phones labeled for Cat. Then I started using my Google Voice account to text dad from "Cat Benatar's" phone (so it's a different phone number... it's funny, ok?).

I took the flip phone to a friend's house and complained to dad that Cat was using it to text a BOY (Maddie's cat, Neville). So now Cat gets her phone taken away for video chatting too much with her boyfriend.

I swear. The backstory is important.

In, like, January I saw this ad for a "joker meow." It's a card that you hide, pull the tab, and then it plays intermittent cat noises for over 8 hours. A plan started to form and I knew I wanted to get it - nay, I was morally OBLIGATED to get it.

I bought the card, managed to keep track of it through our move to Beaverton, brought it with me to Idaho when I helped my dad move his baby car, and then hid it in the downstairs bathroom for my accomplice.

Earlier this week, Cat Benatar texted dad that she was fed up with living with her sister, Ebony, and was coming to live with them in Idaho. Dad told her to pack her treats and food bowl and hitch hike, that they'll be waiting for her.

Enter Jesi, my partner in crime.

She does house cleaning for my parents in return for them babysitting her kiddos. She went today, retrieved the card, taped it to the underside of a cabinet in the den/storage room at my parents' rental house, activated the card, and then left.

Unfortunately my dad was at the store when she needed to leave and mom was left alone with the cat noises. She hears it and starts to search for the cat and because she is deaf in one ear she is having a really hard time locating the source of the noise. She texts in the group text asking if anyone left a door open and might have let in a cat. Luckily, I'm on that group chat because it's too annoying for mom to set up a new group chat with just my dad and Jesi.

In order to make sure she didn't ruin the joke, we had to bring her in on it which ended up being PERFECT.

Dad gets home and the cat noise goes off. At first he thinks it's a smoke alarm chirping. But then it goes again and he starts frantically searching the house, checking the vents, scouring the garage, even sitting on the front porch trying to see if it was kids in the neighborhood playing around. 

And the whole time, mom is keeping me updated via text.

I'm living for this.

Then dad calls the landlord to get him to send someone out because he thinks the cat might have crawled up in the vents. At that point, Mom decides we need to end it and tells me to give her three minutes and then call to come clean.

She pretended she was texting her aunt while talking with my dad in the den/storage room so she could video (yes, she literally does hold her phone up in front of her like that so it totally wouldn't have been suspicious). 

Please enjoy the video of my dad looking for the cat and then talking with me on the phone.

I think we are even now for the balloons. What do you think?

Cat Benatar is back home, safe and sound from her Idaho adventure.

If you want your own awesome joke card, you can get it (and other fun joke card things) here.