Here's one of the things that's really nice about living where we do now. We see lots of wildlife in our yard. And yes, we cats see it. Jackson came in yesterday and reported about three things he saw (I'm not quite at the stage where I'm going out into the catio.)

Jackson has really gotten into the catio thing. He's the "wildest" of us, so man, he was pretty upset when he couldn't go out for three days while the house was being painted.

The catio returned to its spot after the house was painted

Dude. You didn't go out for three MONTHS before that.

Give 'em an inch....and they'll take the whole catio.

Mommee has put blankets in a couple of wooden boxes that are part of the catio, so Jackson was out there yesterday, chilling in the nice warm catio box and watching the world go by.

So what did he see? In reverse order of interest:

A hummingbird. It did it's flitting thing and moved on.

Some quail. These are new for us. They hung around for while, making sure none of their appen...

I'll admit it. I'm shy, and strange noises startle me.

Since we've moved to California, it seems I'm always hiding in the cupboard above the fridge, which is a very nice spot, thank-you-very-much. I heard mommee thinking out loud this morning that maybe she should put sometime soft in there for me to lie on, since I tend to spend so much time there.

Yes! Yes!

My cave, AKA safe space.

The other day, we heard a VERY strange noise, a new one. (As if there aren't enough new ones.)

This is what caused it:

Crazy humans waving as they go over our house.

See that basket? Who would even want to ride in that, hundreds of feet in the air with nothing between you and the ground? And flames right over your head. It's craziness! 

However, from what I've been told, being in one of these things, which are called Hot Air Balloons, is very calming. There's no sound of rushing wind, because it goes with the wind. 

You also don't know where you're going to end up. It really depends upon which...

Mommee and Daddee worked hard and got our catio installed.

Lookee here:

Daddeee

I'm not a very brave cat, but my brother Jackson and sister Ellie are. They're what I would call 
street cats. They would probably say they're more experienced than me in the big bad world, because they both came from places where they were semi-feral, and there were lots of cats. Jackson definitely came from a hoarding situation, and as such doesn't have great bathroom skills. But I digress, and that's for another blog.

Mommee kind of forced me through the cat door to the catio. I immediately turned around and cried to be let in. There's a window right next to the door, and I couldn't tell where the door was. It was also a long jump up from the landing pad in the catio, and that didn't work well. 

You could say I was an excellent cat to try out the configuration and see if it worked well. (Hint: It didn't.)

So some things got changed. A box is now on part of the landing pad so it's easy to go out an...

The other day I overheard my human friend Glenn, who by the way says, “How YOU Doin’?”chat with his friend (we’ll call him Earle) about the anxiety Earle has in these emotionally charged and frightening times. As they were talking Earle expressed that he ‘feels like he's holding his breath waiting for the other shoe to drop’.

From an enlightened squirrel’s perspective - that is NO WAY TO LIVE!

My heart ached when I heard that. Even knowing that Earle was struggling so much even after Glenn sat with him late into the night listening and asking questions that only Earle could answer.

• Can you relate to Earle and see what’s happening in the world?

• Can you feel where he’s at right now and do you share his perspective?

• If you could wouldn’t you want to help Earle and anyone else who feels the same?

How you can help.

Humans have great capacity for offering compassion to other humans. There are many stories shared in the forest about humans showing compassion for oth...