Seven Lives Left

We do not have child safety gear on our windows. It's not that we don't know that kids fall through them, it's that our kid is not tall enough, mobile enough, or unsupervised enough to have dealt with it yet. Our cats, however, are like toddlers who can jump and yet get left to their own devices all day.

This morning we couldn't find Moki anywhere. Moki is not a subtle roommate. He's a very big, galumphing, doofball of a tiger kitty who follows me around and plays with Lyra all day. Moki wasn't anywhere. Finally I dared yell "Are the screens intact??!" No. I went running into the backyard in a flash of adrenaline. I saw no sign of him. Suddenly there was a yowling.

I'd heard this yowl only one time before. Moki slipped past me once and I closed the front door without knowing it and he was faced with OUTSIDE. He backed into the stoop and yowled in terror until I heard him and opened the door.

This morning he was crouched against the corner of our house behind our grill, about five feet from where he must have landed. Once back inside he was strutting about, eating, drinking, pawing at things he's not allowed to have, letting Lyra clumsily pet him, staring at the backyard through the door, trying to catch a fly in the house, and busting open the bathroom door to use his litter box upstairs. He fell a story and a half and was fine.

Over breakfast we realized that both of us had noticed our other cat, Luna, in the window Moki fell from both times we'd passed by looking for Moki. Was she sitting there looking down at him sticking her tongue out? Was he down there telling her to just jump, it's not so bad?

We ticked one of the nine allotted lives off both cats for whatever they survived between before and during the shelter where we got them at three months old. Moki fell at least fifteen feet and landed on small rocks. He's lost another life. It's also worth wondering if besides being able to deliver my kayaking boots up four stories of stairs, play in the shower, play happily with a human baby, open latches, and other funny tricks...he can fly?

Don't try this at home. I think he and we got very, very, very lucky.

Lyra Gets a Tutor

Lyra is a very quick study. I see her attempt something and then she's suddenly expert at it. I know babies learn things at some alarming rate, but I've been getting suspicious. I mean take rolling -- sure she's tried it accidentally a few times over the months, but out of the blue it's What She Does. She executes perfect rolls like a kayaker, lifting her head last and ending up ready for action in crawl position. So, I took a look at the photographc evidence to see if maybe she secretly already knows how to read and has been studying or something -- and as it turns out, she's got a tutor. See here as she arranges with Moki for a rolling lesson. If only I could figure out what she offered him in return.


She states her case for why he should help...

They shake on it...

Luna Takes a Shower

We have two cats who like to shower with us. One of them really showers, the other noses around between the tub and the shower curtain, using the shower curtain as a raincoat. People never believe us, so here is your proof, a brief glimpse of one of Luna's five or so sprinkler runs she takes during an average human shower (not shown the excellent flourishing kick offs she usually does to exit):

Time for Heat

I'm a good Yankee, and I can wait a long time to turn on my heat. This week we had the sign that it was time. When I get up from my chair and am displaced by not one, but two heat-seaking kitties, up goes the thermostat!

Meet My Staff

By the way, you should be introduced to my tireless assistant. He follows me everywhere. He is the King of the Jungle of Cuteness, but we just call him Moki.




He has a very funny sister, Luna, but she's usually too busy to help out.