I have no idea if it’s because of Natasha’s demise or other household disruptions (me being gone to the hospital for a couple of days and returning to take up residence in the dining room), but the indoor cats seem to be in some state of upheaval. It’s hard to say, but after someone left a liquid deposit on Mr. L’s bed, he shut them all out of the bedroom. As a result, Rossie has reportedly taken up residence on a lower book shelf in a defensible position. Before this, there were several kitty skirmishes, seemingly initiated by Daphne. Mr. L reported he thinks Lady may have taken up a position to defend Rossie (based upon her positioning on the box relative to Rossie’s position on the bookshelf). That would, indeed, be an interesting development.

Tarzan and Delta have been asking to get into the dining room with me. I do allow this with supervision. I disallowed free access when I caught Tarzan on the buffet nudging around a tough to replace antique clock of Mr. L’s.

One of the boys, we suspect Tarzan, has been urinating inappropriately. Does he have another urinary tract infection, or is something else going on? We don’t know.  That’s the problem with cats. They try to communicate in certain ways, and we humans so often fail to understand.

As for outside cats, we appear to have four regulars.  Sneaky, our mostly tame Queen of the Yard, is doing well. She’ll go in for her annual exam and shots this week. Walter, the gorgeous boy I trapped last summer for shots and neutering, is still a regular, but we’re no closer to convincing him we won’t harm him. Junior, the light gray, young male is very responsive to a Fancy Feast can, but still very jumpy. I have hopes of befriending him, but I believe this will take much longer than I would like. The cat I’m calling Boomer (who may or may not be the original Boomer) is still coming by. He will eat Fancy Feast, but at a much greater distance from me than Junior.

There’s a large dark gray kitty with white feet who visits. He wears a collar and tags, so he belongs to someone. I think Sneaky and he are not best buds. Mostly, he seems to come to enjoy the water tower. And pulling Sneaky’s chain. There’s also a white with gray patches who has been appearing periodically for over a year. I believe it’s a male cat. He’s not particularly well-kept. so I don’t believe he has a family.  He and Boomer got into a stare down the other day. Boomer has also chased Junior, so I don’t believe they are best buds either.  The outside cat dynamics are interesting.  As long as Sneaky knows and can enforce that the place is hers, that’s what matters to me.