October 6, 2003. One cat seems relatively benign, compared to the mischief two or more could invent. Miss Kitty has relatively nice manners, though she still requires plenty of supervision. I think she might be teething, as she suddenly has urges to bite things. She's trying to tear up her nice kitty bed ... a bed that looks like cotton candy and is supposed to keep loose cat hair confined to her quarters, which would be nice.

She has lost her favorite toy mouse a couple of times ... I needed a flashlight and a tomato stake to locate it and fish it out from under the back of the stove. Then it was lost behind the couch for a couple of days before I found it and retrieved it. These exercises require me to sprawl prone on the floor, which tickles her, I think. We've played lots of wild and inventive games of soccer mouse, hockey mouse and tether mouse. A favorite: high speed chasing of light from the pointer that came with my Carousel projector around varied obstacle courses. (Glad I finally found a use for it!)

One night I had to go out, so I changed clothes and went looking for my cat, to put her in her kennel while I was away. No cat! She couldn't have gotten out of the house, but I sure couldn't find her. I called her and rolled a jingly cat toy across the floor. I rattled her food dish and listened. Silence! I searched all the places I knew, and a few more that seemed highly unlikely. Finally, I opened the coat closet to get my jacket and Miss Kitty moseyed out with a look of smug satisfaction on her puss.

There is separation anxiety to contend with when I try to work downstairs (off limits to pussycats), or outdoors. She sat on my shoulder while I did the last watering of the season and disconnected the hoses for winter. I had to work with one hand and keep a firm grip on her harness leash with the other, to make sure she didn't get lost again. This suited her better than having to stay inside the screen door. Yesterday, I raked up four bagfuls of wet leaves and that takes two hands, so she stayed indoors.

Today, I decided she could come out and watch the leaf raking, as long as she wore her harness and leash, which I secured to the back steps. This worked out better than I expected, though she would have preferred to run free. A little chickadee stopped by the bird feeder and sang its little chickadee, chickadee song. That got her attention. Then a big magpie flew into the tree and started scolding like a crow ... a magpie being, basically, a crow in fancy dress. Miss Kitty was thoroughly impressed.

After raking three bags of wet leaves, and rescuing her once when she tried to jump through the railing and got herself tangled up, I went for the camera, because she looked so perky sitting on the steps. Oh, boy! She knew every trick in the book to avoid posing for a picture ... though I finally got a couple of a "kitty with an attitude," all dolled up with rabies and microchip tags dangling from her harness.

While we were fooling around trying to get a good picture, the mist turned into a steady drizzle and I got to rake the last bag of leaves for today in the rain. We called it a day and came indoors. I wouldn't have thought sitting on the steps was all that much of an effort, but Miss Kitty tucked herself into bed and slept right through dinner. She woke up for some games, eventually, and she's sleeping on my lap now. This week I'll try bundling her into a "frontpack" kitty caddy and see how that goes.