a plastic egg, she’ll ask you for a curtain. If you roll the egg under the curtain, she will attack and grapple it. After mock murdering it, she will play in the curtain.

Playing in the curtain will remind her of her favorite toy. She’ll ask you for the feather on a stick.

Playing with the feather on a stick will give her the rip-tears. She will zip up and down the hall, then hide behind the door. Chances are, when her paws are under the door, she’ll ask you for a plastic egg.

(With many apologies and much love to Laura Numeroff.)

Izzy says hello from the rag basket under the sink because… cat, basket. That it is full of bits of cloth is a bonus. She really isn’t that small. It is a big basket.

Pulling up old pictures of Shadows had us wondering how close in coloring our current cat Izzy is to Shadows. The answer: pretty close. Both had/have one orange leg and one black with white paws, they were just mirrored. They both had/have a mostly black back, Shadows just had more white on her tummy. The biggest difference is in their size. Shadows was a small rolly polly cat, while Izzy is a large sleek feline (not that you can tell in these particular photos). The dates are adoption dates, as we added both to our family when they were adults.

Is this a case for reincarnation? Or just that I really like calicos.

I found extra large covered litter boxes at the store, which I have not seen before in this size, so bought one to put in the catio. It has a plastic top, and the door can be tilted back, which seems like it will keep most of the rain out. The thought of a litter box full of rain is the main reason a box hasn’t been out there before. Apparently my poor Izzy cat has been deprived for years. The inside box was immediately eschewed in favor of the new outside facilities.

The next step is to get some more rope and make the scratching post in a different location.

My neighbor has a beautiful cat that likes to wander our woods. He (?) is a striking long-haired flame point with blue eyes. He also sticks out like a sore thumb.

One of his siblings is black, and that doesn’t do much better for hiding during the day, watching chickens.

Now scroll back up to the first photo. Did you see her? There is a calico in the background. Did you miss her the first time? Don’t worry, I accidentally half cropped her out on the first go. Calicos have the best camouflage; the black base isn’t as good as a gray-based calico for this area, but it is still pretty darn good.