More about cats. Hope you aren't tired of them. I have more to add about wildlife narrow escapes. Kaboodle got a chipmunk yesterday. I was horrified when I saw it hanging in her mouth. But all's well that ends well.

I heard a flurry of mourning doves taking off outside my window and wondered what had scared them. Minutes later, Kaboodle comes upstairs and lets out this very different sort of meowrrrr. Dusky and Butterball who were lazing about in the catquariums immediately jerked awake and then got up to investigate. I followed them. I caught up with all three of them in the dining room and there was Kaboodle with this chipmunk in her mouth. Poor little striped guy was purely terrified. I followed her around the table and leaned down to grab her scruff. She got distracted and let the critter go. Chippy hopped, skipped and jumped instantly over to the screen door and I was cursing myself for not having opened it a few minutes earlier when I had thought about it. The chipmunk slammed into the closed door.

Kaboodle was on the chase right away and caught Chippy in her mouth again at the door. My heart did a double flip-flop because I was afraid she got a death munch on him that time. I managed to corner her right there and she dropped the chipmunk again. Chippy instinctively went right back to the door, thankfully, and started climbing it. Being right there beside it, I got the door open quickly and the frightened creature made his escape onto the deck. Somehow Kaboodle didn't manage to get out.

And that was the end of that little saga. The only way Kabodle could have gotten the critter was from the cat enclosure. He must have gone in there for a look-see at the grass we added to the floor. Bill planted a maple seedling in the front yard over the weekend and I had him put all the sod he tore out into the cat cage. We don't know how long the grass will last in there but it is being thoroughly enjoyed by the felines in the family.

And here I've been worried that the stray cats that come into the yard would get the chipmunks... Who would have thought? I'm just hoping that Kaboodle doesn't wise up and stop bringing me her trophies.

Here's how the cats really spend their day:

Bill just had to do it. With three cats around here, he saw a need to have three catquariums to accommodate all of them so there woldn't be any scafluffles. The double decker here works pretty well. That is, when Dusky isn't in a territorial mood.

Epilogue