We left the cats alone for a long weekend.  We confine them to two rooms of the house while we’re gone, but, well, sometimes that doesn’t work.  The house does some settling, and at certain times of the year, some doors will stay closed and others won’t.  Which doors varies with the time of year.  At the moment, the parlor door is the one which doesn’t latch.  So we blocked it closed with a large piece of cardboard and a box.  But the box wasn’t heavy enough to prevent certain cats from moving it (I’m looking at you, Tarzan).  When we got home, the door was slightly ajar (but the cardboard was still blocking easy ingress and egress.  I’m surprised most of the cats were where they belonged when we got home.  I think Tarzan was the only one missing for certain, and he was probably lounging somewhere upstairs.

All four of the kittens looked at us like we were aliens.  So much for memories.  Delta and Floyd weren’t too bad.  One set of curtains was knocked down behind a dresser we have in front of one of the parlor windows.  I was trying to pick it up to put it back across the window, but I was having trouble lifting it.  It turns our Rossie was holding it down (she was under that dresser when we left for the weekend, too, but I don’t think she stayed under there all weekend).  Once I disturbed her too much, she bolted, but she bolted to the kitchen.  I closed the swinging door behind me to block her in there, and I discovered Ruby was there as well, also looking like she thought I was ready to eat her.  I captured Ruby and began calming her down.  Mr L. came in a few minutes later, and Ruby freaked.  I recaptured her while Mr. L sought out Rossie.  Rossie allowed him to approach and pick her up. He held her and talked to her for a little while, and she seemed to enjoy it.  When she began struggling, he set her down on a box, and calmed her some more.  When he let her go, she stayed on the box for a very short time before stepping down and taking up residence on the register by the back stairs.  She’s still there.  It’s as if she missed us.  She has had plenty of opportunities to bolt to one of her hiding places, but so far, she has not.

The four litter boxes were very ready to be scooped, and the two food towers were nearly empty, but plenty of water remained in both water towers.  I guess they didn’t try to make too many fish swim while we were gone.  That set up works okay for three nights and four days away.  More than that, and things could get less than optimal here.