Wide Open Windows

Just two nights ago, my furry brothers and sisters, my humans opened the windows in the house for the first time this year. This is a most glorious occasion, the sites and smells and sounds that come from outside are quite amazing. I have celebrated this momentous happening by starting to jump up onto and climb in the screen door.  I'd never thought to do this before, and I must say it was very rewarding. Evan and Sudha were quite surprised to see me 4 feet off the ground hanging from the screen, but they'll get over it.

There is unfortunately a downside to the open-windows season: fans. In case you don't know what a fan is, it is some sort of infernal demon that blows air at me and makes me very uncomfortable. Evan even took it upon himself to deliberately point the thing at me. I took revenge by pouncing on his feet at 6 am this morning.

My humans are travelling quite a bit recently. They were out for four days, and are apparently leaving me alone for another four days this weekend. The kindly neighbor came by to feed me, and when I say feed, I mean feed. He was VERY generous with the food. So much so that when Evan and Sudha got back they took one look at me and started calling me "tubs." Needless to say, they have put me back on the infernal diet. Now I eat my food almost right away and then start complaining for more.

It's a good thing they are going away this weekend again and the nice neighbor will feed me an appropriate amount.

Going back to the subject of the outdoors: I've been making more concerted efforts to escape recently than I have in the past. Just the other day, in fact, I got out onto the front porch, and almost manage to hide under the bushes before Evan grabbed me. Any time the back door slides open, I'm there, pushing to get out. I've not yet managed to get passed the back deck yet, but I will someday!

I've heard talk recently about how cats are able to know who's allergic to them, or who is afraid of them while looking at a room full of humans. I will take this moment to say that that is absolutely true. Evan and Sudha's friend Jonathan has been coming over to watch "A Game of Thrones," and he is quite allergic to cats. We just have a sixth sense about these kinds of things. So I made extra sure to be friendly to him, to console him to my presence. I sat near his spot on the couch, I rubbed my body against his legs a few time. I really just wanted to make sure he was not afraid of me any more.

It's been nice here in Minnesota since Spring finally arrived a couple of weeks ago. I predict that it's going to be a brutally hot summer. But I'm just a cat, so what do I know?

A Clash of Kitties

My humans have become obsessed, my furry brothers and sisters, with a new TV show called "A Game of Thrones." They have been inviting people over every Sunday for the past three weeks to watch it! Now, I'm not usually a cat to turn down the opportunity to assert my authority over other living creatures, but we're talking a lot of humans here! You already know that I'm somewhat suspicious of strangers, but it just gets worse when there are 5 or six of them in the same room.

Not only do they make me suspicious, I think they are mocking me behind my back. For example, two Sundays ago, I had a hair-raising run-in with the TV stand in front of everyone. One of the doors on the TV stand was opened, and I felt it would be nice to use it to scratch the side of my face. The door swung in as I rubbed against it, then suddenly swung back out and startled me, causing me to jump and puff out my tail in fear. Now, I would have thought nothing of this, but everyone in the room burst into uproarious laughter. It was as if they were just waiting for me to do something ridiculous.

Anyway, going back to the original topic, "A Game of Thrones" is some nerdy fantasy series that my humans seem to enjoy. One of the main themes of it is that "winter is coming." In that vein, I thought I'd post a picture of myself braving the horrors of the Minnesota winter. It is technically spring here, but let's put things in perspective: just the other day as Evan and Sudha left for the work in the morning there were snow flakes falling from the sky! I've still been trying to escape recently whenever either of my servants opens one of the doors. But my efforts have been rather lackluster due to the cold.

However, the spring scene outside my windows is still very entertaining and engaging. These things called "leaves" have started blowing by the window, and blowing onto the deck. I'm not really sure what they are or where they come from, but they tend to yell insults at me as the blow by. I respond in kind, and try my best to get through the glass at them.

Leaves aren't the only thing that has returned with the springtime. The squirrels and rabbits are much more active these days, as well as the evil other cats from the neighborhood.

I don't know if you recall, but a nefarious usurper going by the name of Tuxedo spent some time trying to steal away my humans last year. He's back. Sudha spotted him out of the kitchen window, and both of the human help seemed to be pretty happy about it.

Just last night, however, another cat showed itself. I don't know this one's name, but she is much smaller and shyer than Tuxedo is. Sudha and Evan were in the living room after completing their serving duties, and I was by the back deck door. This cat, a darker tabby just got up on the deck and came over to the door. She just sat there! I puffed up my tail and scream and swiped at her, but she just stayed where she was, looking in through the window at me. Evan and Sudha came over to see what the commotion was. Once this intruder saw them she ran away.

What bothers me about this whole situation is that my humans seemed happy that there was some stranger hanging out on their porch. Now, I don't know where they get the idea that they have the right to decide who gets to stay on my porch, but it is MY porch. Just as this house is my house, and everything revolves around me.

That is all for this time, my furry brothers and sisters. I have to mentally prepare for another visit of rude humans this Sunday.