Wild Sunday

We had a very wild Sunday. Earlier in the evening Mom let us in the garage. It wasn't two minutes later she glanced in the garage and called to Dad, "There's a dead lizard in the garage!" And then she shut the door with us out there. So Dad gears up with some paper towels to dispense of the dead lizard, but when he opens the door there's no lizard. "It must not have been dead," he told Mom as he stepped into the garage to investigate. Well, after my ordeal of being locked in the garage over night last week, I wasted no time busting into the house. Then Josie was right behind me. Good thing Mom was paying attention because she called for Dad, "Josie's got it in her mouth!" Josie was trying to bring the dead lizard into the house to show Mom and Dad. Well, Dad scooped her up and she put the lizard down for him in the garage. Sure enough, Josie had found a small skink and played with it until it broke. She is a very good huntress.


Here is the broken skink. You can understand why Mom didn't want this in the house. It was about four inches long minus the tail. (Dad never found the tail.)

Well, this was just the beginning of the adventures on Sunday. Later that night our friend Samantha came over to ride bikes with Mom. But Samantha was feeling guilty about not spending time with her crazy dog Louie. So Dad offered to walk Louie while they rode bikes. That was fine, I guess, if Dad wants to show some pity to a dog. But then, after the rides and walk, Mom, Dad, Samantha and Louie all went to the back deck to hang out, enjoy the nice night and talk.


I'm not sure how clear it is in this picture, but we do not approve. We disapprove like a rabbit disapproves. Josie got up against the door and whapped the door while hissing. I was very puffed up and roaming the back of the couch patrolling. Maggie was the only one who really didn't seem too concerned. I think we made it clear that dogs are not welcome on our back deck, or in our house. We were getting so agitated that Dad actually took us to the bathroom so we could calm down. When we came out later Louie was gone. Apparently he likes to be chased by cats. He thinks it's a funny game. All I have to say to Louie is this: look at that skink and consider yourself warned. (OK, he is cute, I'll give him that...)

Back deck visitor

We had that little black cat visit us again Tuesday morning. Dad was sitting in the living room having his cereal when he saw the little cat stretching in one of the chairs on the deck. The little guy (guy? girl?) came over to the back door and posed for a few pictures (to be posted soon). Maggie wanted to let him in so they could play, but that wasn't an option. Maggie and Huggy Bear stared at the little cat for a bit, then the visitor wandered off. Dad resisted the temptation to give him some of our treats. He certainly looks friendly and like he has a forever home somewhere.

Back porch visitor

We had a visitor out back. We knew a black kitten had been visiting our neighbor. Well, looks like he made it over our fence and onto our deck. He curled up and napped for a little while, then headed off. We're hoping he has a home, and is just visiting and checking out the surroundings.

Hanging with Mom and Dad

Sunday was so nice ... apparently Mom and Dad got an extra hour in their day. To us, it still seemed the same. But on the bright side, Mom and Dad didn't have to go to the theatre all day, which is the first time in what seems like weeks. The play Mom is producing is up and going, but they didn't have a show Sunday, so Mom and Dad relaxed, watched some tv and cleaned out their closet. And most importantly, they spent some quality time with us!


This is our neighbor's visitor cat -- Zoey. I've been meaning to introduce you to her properly for a while now. Remember a while back she was putting her stink on when he would take the morning litter scoopings out? And she was playing with Maggie through the front window. Well this picture was taken a few weekends ago when the neighbor was over checking on the HVAC before the weather cooled down. Zoey tagged along and played in the mulch. Zoey's family has three indoor cats that Mom and Dad cat-sat a while back, but unfortunately Zoey is Feline Leukemia Positive so she has to stay outside. But she is very sweet, even if she puts her stink on Dad in the mornings. I guess we can let her visit.

Visitor cat

On Tuesday morning, when Dad stepped out to take out the trash, our neighbor's gray and white girl cat Zoey was by the car and ran over to visit and get some loves from Dad. He gave her a few pets and headed back to the house. She ran ahead to the porch and was putting her stink on the porch when Dad went in. Maggie had noticed this little interloper trying to steal our Dad's affection and was giving her the stare-down through the window when we heard a ::thump:: and little girl was all sprawled out on the screen and window. She may have been saying to Maggie, "bring it" or "come and play" ... I'm not quite sure as it was early and I was still a little sleepy. Either way, we all agreed she would stay outside and we would stay inside -- and that we got to keep Dad.

Later that morning, after Dad left for work, Josie got to stalk and huff at a squirrel on the deck out back. So overall, it was quite an exciting morning from all the windows. (I'm pretty sure the squirrels didn't want to steal Mom or Dad -- but you can never be too careful.)

Not happy at all

We're not happy at all, and let me show you why...


You see that -- dead center -- a cat coming to visit Mom while she was at the theatre yesterday. We have to stay home without our Mom, and this other cat gets to come and say HI and get Mom excited to have a visitor. Why can't we be the visitor, and hunt around the theatre for bugs (you know there's bound to be a bug or two) and explore all the cool high places? Come on, it has a CAT WALK -- for that reason alone we should be there.

Oh, and in yesterday's Wordless Wednesday, Maggie was sitting next to Huggy Bear, looking very cute on the step. But right before Dad took the picture she decided she'd rather go put her stink on Dad. So we just got the streak of Maggie's tail, and a confused Huggy Bear.

Outside visitors

Usually our outside visitors consist mainly of neighboring cats intruding on our deck, or maybe a sassy squirrel or two. But with Mom and Dad working in the yard so much the last three days they have seen a lot of other visitors, too.

They saw lots of lizards (or the same two lizards over and over again)...


Huggy Bear really wanted to hunt this one.


But he was really quick and a challenge to get a good picture of.


This was a tiny baby lizard.


And what we assume is the momma lizard hanging out by the catnip plant.


There was a birdy investigating the new hanging ferns on the front porch. I hope she doesn't try to build a nest in the ferns because it'll get all messed up when the plants get watered.

Then the weekend before last, there was this guy:

A rat snake was sunning against the house. Sure, he's non-venomous, essentially a large worm, and chased out of the woods behind the houses across the street by some construction, but still, it's a snake where Mom and Dad would rather not see snakes. Fortunately he wasn't back this weekend while Mom and Dad were doing so much or else this weekend wouldn't have been nearly as productive for them. On the other hand, we might have had more Mom and Dad time...

Wordless Wednesday