Crickets Don’t Cut It!!!

That is, from a cats point of view, after all, such a worldly cat, she is transcontinental! She was sleeping on the dash, her mother was ducking tunnels and bridges, taking up the space between me and John on the seat of the truck. Tunnels were the worst for her, something about the prolonged darkness just freaked her out. She would get down low on the seat, then, when we rode back into the light, she’d slowly raise her head, as if she were pearing out, from down in a hole. Katie had her own demons, bridges and tunnels mattered little to her, vacuum cleaners didn’t even bother her, Katie enjoys the challenge. If I try to block her from somewhere in the house, she becomes occupied, she, I believe, perceives these things that I put in her way, only as obstacles, just the things that I do, keeping it interesting for her. Katie is sleeping on the dash, were somewhere out in Arizona, heading West. Bad weather had been at our heels, the entire trip. Leaving Philly, we decided to head a little south, a big storm was blowing in across the Midwest. We head for the Mountains of West Virginia, Charleston. On the radio, we hear we were right, had we gone my normal route, through Ohio, Indiana, down to Saint Louis, we’d be stuck. Through the mountains, this storm was just coming in, the drive was OK, two hours later, I’m sure a real mess. All the way across, looking out to the north we’d see that storm, our route was across Kentucky, to the north western tip of Tennessee. It was early Sunday Morning, no traffic. We were off the main highway, following maps, we were hitting intermittent drizzle driving south to Memphis. The rest of the way had just been grey. Late monday night we pulled into a town in Arizona and got a room, why not close the day out on Old Historic Route 66. We had an early dinner in Albq., Green Chili Stew, ah, lifes little pleasures, this town has Edsel taxi cabs! A light snow is beginning to fall as were leaving Seligman early, we expect to be in LA about three. Alleys ducking all the bridges. John turns on the intermittent wipers, Katie begins to stretch, then the wiper blade pushes off another layer of snow. I could see in Katies eyes, she thinks something is moving somewhere around her. She wasn’t sure what it was, she had been sleeping by the heat. You saw her get tense, John and I both knew what this was about. When the wiper moved again, she about jumped out of her skin, she really thought she saw something, but this! The blade paused another couple of seconds, she got ready. When it moved again, she attacked, when it retreated once more she had won. Her back was high, her tail fluffed, she stood her ground. She watched the blade a few more times, then got down with her mother, who was still bobbing and weaving. Getting to California, for a month and a half, living in Venice, BIRDS, big BIRDS, lots of places to climb. What a nice routine, in the morning, wake up Uncle Ben, he’ll open the door to the porch that overlooks the Ocean Front Walk. The sound of pigeons roosting all night long, only adds to the excitement, people will be feeding sea gulls soon, right out in front, both Katie and Alley watch, just dreaming about having a go, at one of those Gulls. So then you ask yourself, what kind of a challenge is there in a cricket? Looking over, I see that Katie sure does like that cat nip pillow, her arm is around it, she’s sleeping, her chin is resting on it. I wore her out again today, she actually does fetch, I have this piece of raw hide lace, that I’ve wrapped into a loop, I can sit for an hour throwing that thing, she always, almost always brings it back. She has me on a schedule, first thing in the morning, she is very vocal about all this. If she doesn’t bring it back I know its time for a rest. I,m getting a break today, she can’t seem to remember what she did with. It will turn up, she’ll be right in my face telling me all about it. Just to let you know, the raw hide was on the bed this morning, right next to her cat nip pillow!