The picture was taken last weekend. This is one of the boys' favorite spots, as I think I've mentioned. Here they can sit and watch the cavalcade of nature at its North Carolina summer best. I looked out, over their heads, to see what was up, and saw two turtles walking single file down the path to the shed where the boys were born. Squirrels taunt the boys from the wood piles, or even stand on the race car and shake their tails. I'm planning on teaching the boys "Rock Salt and Nails" some winter moment when I have some free time. They are a three-part harmony waiting to happen.
The boys' momma comes around about every morning when I get up, wanting breakfast. This was the hope, and I'm delighted to feed her. The boys sit in the window and stare at her. She doesn't much like that, but will eat. (Conveniently she usually likes their left-overs, which is a bit of a money-saver.) I'm not sure anyone "recognizes" anyone. She looks like one of them now, in length, so maybe they think maybe one of them got out, like all of them kinda want to--till they do. There are occasional "kitty leaks," and with three sometimes we don't even notice till we make a head count. (Libby finds my head-counting ways somewhat annoying, as they imply to her that she wouldn't notice on her own. My current job enhances my tendencies to back-seat drive, since it requires almost hyper focus at times.) When we have noticed a missing crew member, a quick look outside will find the boy standing bemused on the other side of the door he went out. They'd rather be with us. Much rather. Bed time is an adventure, since "being with us" does not equal "lying quietly in bed and purring" in every case. Now and then it means pouncing with vehemence (and a loving heart) on our feet, or engaging in a big three-way tag-team match just between the bed and the precipice down to the stone floor below. If it gets too difficult, we get up and carry them into the living room, where they can all play in the big pile of CDs that used to reside on a nice shelf, in some vaguely logical order (fiddle tunes on the third shelf down, that kind of thing).
Maybe when I get to teaching "Rock Salt and Nails," I'll start out by finding Utah's CD down in the pile, and that'll inspire me to go ahead and put all the discs back up on the shelves. I'm thinking that the kitties are mostly bored with the simple idea of just going back behind the shelves and pushing the CDs out in big blocks, just for the fun of the clatter. Why bother with that. Now they can climb the big book case on the opposite wall all the way to the tippy top and explore the cobwebs and spiders that live with Kant and Wittgenstein and Dave Hume, absorbing their deep lessons as only spiders can.
Anyways. It's laundry Saturday, and a long way to Halloween. But it's great we have two black cats. I'm definitely going to put out a pumpkin this fall. Also maybe some tiny beware signs for the field mice that always invade when it gets cold. These guys may be indoor cats, but they do not lack for interest in tiny movements, and definitely have no problem with killing small things. Gray boy was a bit ill just the other day after eating some sort of large bug he found.
Last night I dreamed that some people had brought me a white and yellow kitten. I told them to take it back and they just laughed and left. About then one of the boys decided to taste my big toe, and I got up to write this and assemble the laundry. The kitty alarms are always on. We do not have to worry about electricity out here, as far as that goes.
god, i love everything about this post. the fiddle tunes on the third shelf, the kitten eating the giant bug, the solemn march of the turtles. it's laundry day here, too. and rosie has taken to helping me kill flies on the back screen porch; we tend to leave the door open, and the porch tends to fill up with flies, and every morning after our walk i go out with a fly swatter, and she goes with me. she loves to jump and catch and eat a moving fly, and i think she has gotten many more of them than i have.
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