When Lion was wearing his original cage it was locked on with a padlock. We have several padlocks all keyed the same so losing the key wasn’t much of an issue. Now his cage has a unique key. That may sound redundant. Aren’t keys supposed to be unique? To a certain extent. You can make a copy of your house key. We probably could have made copies of the padlock key. But the cage key cannot be copied. It has what looks like a symbol on the head. I have no idea how they make the key or the screw to fit it, but it’s not coming off without the correct key.
We have two keys. Ideally one would be hidden from Lion and one would be the emergency key. What if we lose one? What if I swear I put my key back in its hiding place and it’s not there the next time I look? What if the emergency key gets misplaced? As I’ve mentioned before, we are going on several road trips this summer. Both Lion and I were worried that we’d be zipping down the highway not realizing we left the key home. It’s not a simple matter of packing an extra key in a suitcase. There is no extra key. So I decided, since we aren’t going anywhere without my truck, I will attach it to the truck keys. But now it’s not hidden.
I don’t really think Lion needs it hidden. He knows roughly where it is anyway. All he’d have to do is go rummaging through my nightstand and he’d find it. I think it’s more than a trust issue. I do trust that he won’t unlock himself. But if he actually did then it might mean he didn’t want the cage on anymore. That would definitely be a bigger issue.
However, I think that Lion would prefer that the key were hidden. It’s not that he doesn’t trust himself. Not knowing where the key is might make it more “real”. This is another instance where real life supersedes fantasy. At least on the road, my ability to hide the key is limited.
On the other hand, maybe knowing the key is available is a psychological conundrum. It’s there. He can see it. He can even hold it. But he can’t use it. I don’t know. Caged males, which is worse?
