Hallowe'en. My sister really liked the idea of taking Miss Kitty trick or treating ... to hand out some kind of kitty treats. However, having been to a Hallowe'en party a week ago, I think I'll forgo the festivities tonight. Miss Kitty went to the party in her pouch and all the little kids wanted to pet her ... and did. And besides, she has already pulled a trick on me today ... one I'm not eager to repeat. Miss Kitty scampered out the front door this morning, not wearing her harness and ID tags, as I brought today's mail.

Miss Kitty's waving tail disappeared under my neighbor's big motorhome just as my tea kettle started to whistle on the stove ... so I went back in to turn the burner off ... no use burning up the tea kettle, too! Then I checked out the motorhome and the neighbor's yard and explained to the crew fixing the roof there that I was looking for my lost kitty. No kitty! While I was looking around, thinking over what to do next, I spotted Miss Kitty in the flower bed next to my front steps and soon recaptured her.

Miss Kitty comes with me, in her car seat pouch, most of the time now. She pokes her head out the front window but stays in her pouch while I'm driving. If I pop out to do an errand and know I'll be gone awhile, I unzip the window a bit so she can step out of the pouch, though still restrained by the pouch's retaining leash, about 10 inches long. Then she can sit on the seat or on top of the pouch or stand on the seat and put her front paws on the dashboard or the side window. She's my "watch kitty" now.

When we visit with Shannon, she stays in her pouch but pokes her head out and hisses at the two resident cats, even though there are two of them and the largest is easily three or four times Miss Kitty's size ... and looks even larger because she's a long haired tortoiseshell. She looks a lot like Miss Kitty would have looked if she hadn't inherited the "dilute" gene.

She's safe enough on the pouch, high on Shannon's desk, but she longs for a life of risk and adventure. She managed to crawl far enough out the front window to tip the pouch off the desk the other day ... so Miss Kitty and pouch flew into space and landed together, a good four-foot drop, at least. It's a good thing kitty cats are resilient. No harm done, just a scare.

All of this is training now, while she still has a kitten's flexibility, in hopes that we can travel all around Alaska next summer and be happy campers. After each excursion, my tuckered tiger hops into bed and sleeps for hours.