We’re free! We’re free!

Hi, I’m Storm. Thunder said it was my turn to tell about our lives. Besides, she said, I’ve had more adventures than her so I have to pay for that somehow.

A couple days after Thunder told about our life in the closet, lisa-mom discovered some kitten poop in her closet. We’re not telling who did it ‘cause we think someone might get in trouble. But the good news is lisa-mom decided we were NOT going to live in the closet any more. She moved us to a big room with lots of toys, a tree to climb, a condo for sleeping and climbing, a little tent, and a window to look out. We also have food and water dishes that lisa-mom keeps filled all the time. Even though the big kids sometimes steal our food there’s still plenty. We’re growing kittens, after all. Oh yeah, we have litter boxes, too. We’re supposed to go potty there. And we do. Mostly.

Shira-mom was not happy about the move. She told us to follow her back to the closet and when we ignored her, she picked up Jeremy and took him back herself. Lisa-mom saw that and moved Jeremy back to our room. Then she shut the closet door. So Shira-mom picked up Rain and carried him down to the office in the basement. Lisa-mom didn’t like that either, so she moved Rain back upstairs and closed the basement door. Then she shut the door to our room so nobody could get out. Shira-mom was really unhappy for a couple days, but finally she gave in and said we could stay here. After that, lisa-mom put up a gate in our doorway and left the door to our room open so Shira-mom could get out, but we couldn’t. It just wasn’t fair.

But Ken-dad came to the rescue. He heard us crying on a Saturday morning and he took down the gate. It didn’t take us any time at all to escape down the hall. We went in lisa-mom’s bedroom. We went in the bathroom. We tried to go in Jeremy’s (our human brother) room, but lisa-mom said we might die of lethal Lego ingestion in there so she shut that door, too. (We wish she’d quit doing that!) We ran up and down the hall. Lisa-mom wasn’t very happy. She told Ken-dad she’d never be able to keep track of all six of us now. Shira-mom wasn’t much happier. She really likes it when she knows where we all are.

That night our Quake-dad’s family came over to visit. Lisa-mom had put the gate back up in our doorway ‘cause she said she didn’t want to have to look all over for us when our visitors arrived. But I fooled her. I climbed right over that gate! Jeremy studied my technique – climb up the little wires, perch on the top, and dive over the other side – and was soon following my lead. Now everyone can do it. So lisa-mom doesn’t bother with the gate any more.

The things we like to do best in our room are climb up the condo to the windowsill, then walk along the windowsill to the top of the cat tree. It’s not a very big tree – not like the one downstairs. We sleep there and play there and use the tree for a launching pad to the bed. Sometimes we get to wrestling around so much we fall off. Lisa-mom laughs and says it’s a good thing we’re not in the tree downstairs. We also hide under the bed and jump out at each other. We’re getting really good at this pouncing and running stuff.

We’ve been having lots of visitors ‘cause we’re so cute. Everyone wants to see and hold us. We’re not big on snuggles – well, Thunder and Midnight like snuggles – but we let them hold us and give us kisses. Don’t take that wrong. We love visitors. We’d just rather be in the same room with them and not have them pick us up. It’s more fun when kids come to visit because they like to play with us. But Rain and I got to go visiting ourselves.

It all started on Saturday (a week after Ken-dad freed us.) One of lisa-mom’s friends was coming to meet us and our Quake-dad’s family was coming over later to take pictures and visit us. Thunder and I had been playing downstairs and decided we were tired. So we crawled up under the corner kitchen cupboard to take a nap. Lisa-mom looked all over for us and was getting very stressed ‘cause she’d lost us. We weren’t really lost; we knew where we were. Thunder came out just before Quake-dad’s family arrived. But I didn’t. I finally woke up and came out about three hours later. Lisa-mom was so mad at me! Then Thunder decided to sleep there again on Saturday night and lisa-mom couldn’t find her. The next day, lisa-mom spotted Thunder heading to our hiding spot. Very careless of Thunder. Lisa-mom once again has ruined our fun by blocking the gap that we used between the two cupboards. At the same time, she blocked all the furniture so we can’t get under anything but the beds.

But I was starting to tell you about Rain and my adventure… Since I wasn’t around for pictures, lisa-mom had to take me over to visit Quake-dad’s house on Sunday. Because Rain is going to live there when he’s bigger, he got to go along, too. We rode in a box-thing with a door on it so we couldn’t get out. The ride was a little bit scary, but I guess it wasn’t too bad -- now that I know what was going on. We got to meet our Quake-dad. He’s really nice and I think he likes us, too. I curled up beside him to take a nap and he was washing me. But I got a little crazy and kept batting at him and wiggling around, so finally he got up and left. Nikita, Quake-dad’s friend, didn’t like us, but maybe she’ll get used to Rain when he moves there. After all, Rain is very nice. When he’s not racing across the floor to tackle me, that is. Rain thinks it will be fun to live with Quake-dad and his family. They have two kids who will play with him all the time. 

We now go downstairs whenever we want. We can play with the big kids’ toys and climb on the big cat tree. Although, lisa-mom tries to tell us that the top of the big tree is no place for a little cat who doesn’t climb down very well. We ignore her. We also like the kitty jungle gym in the dining room. Lisa-mom calls is a wine rack, but it’s so much fun to climb! Midnight got stuck the first time she climbed to the top and had to be rescued. But that hasn’t happened again.

We play with Shadow, Zeke, and cousin Talia. Zeke is like another dad – he washes us and cuddles with us when we want to sleep. But, he doesn’t like it when we bite his tail. Funny, Shira-mom doesn’t like it when we bite her tail, either. She even hissed at me this morning when I did it. Shadow gets kinda rowdy with us. Sometimes he makes us cry, but we know he’s just playing. If only he wouldn’t lie down on us! It’s really hard to escape from him then. But we always go back for more. One second we’re yelping ‘cause he played too hard, the next second we’re batting his tail and jumping at him.  

The next frontier is the top of lisa-mom’s bed. It’s really high and it’s hard to get there without help. Sometimes the covers hang over far enough that I can climb them to the top. But when they don’t, I just sit on Ken-dad’s side and complain until someone picks me up. It’s not that I want to sleep there; I just think it’s a good place to play. Thunder and Jeremy sometimes sleep up there, though.

Well, I’ve got things to do. Besides, lisa-mom might come home and discover we know how to use the computer. Who knows what she’d do to ruin that fun!

(--> Cat Tails, Pg13)

© 2002 lisa s vasa

 

(Please note that you will see a number of photos of our cats and kittens that I've taken outside in a natural setting. The LostWoods cats do NOT go outside unsupervised! When we do go outside for pictures and occasional adventures, there is always one person and usually two watching them closely. We do have an outside, fully enclosed run to which the older cats are allowed access, but even then we check on them often.)

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