Day of Adventures

Today was a day for some back yard work, and the kittens were pretty happy to get some outside time.

I made some additional attempts to add netting on the tree to keep Rhea from climbing out.  I did leave her out there once for a while and she was still there, but possibly she didn’t make a try.

Instead she spent the bulk of the time sitting on the brick border of that planting zone.  It has been the kitten’s safety spot for a while.  Before I started my occasional yard cleanup, it was a snug little cave for a kitten or two, with a back way out.

Now it is quite a bit more open, but shaded above by the Star Jasmine.

The twigs still dangle down overhead.

It makes a good spot for a cleanup.

There was a huge glob of crabgrass that used to form the ‘wall” that I uprooted today, moving the line of out-of-control plants away three feet.  Davout seems a little disturbed at all the open space he has now.  Just before this he tried to wedge himself in a thicket of branches under the Jasmine.

In the early evening, after dinner, I went up to visit Anna in her room.  On the way out, Rhea was waiting outside the door and I let her in.  Anna was in her closet, which she uses as her bed.

The usual pattern is she is resting by the window,  jumps down to eat dinner when I bring it, and then she retires to the closet for cleaning up.  There was one new twist yesterday – she was in the closet resting, I sat on the red sofa in front of it, and she jumped up the back of the sofa to stand next to me, then got down and jumped up to the window.

So Rhea comes creeping in, about an inch a minute, turns the corner to the closet and gets a full face meeting with Anna.  Result – a healthy hiss or two from Anna, Rhea stood her ground, then a little growling from Anna and then I shooed Rhea away.

This isn’t bad…several times when Calla was being introduced she chased Julie in circles around the room, around and over the furniture!

So far Anna has shown little interest in leaving her room, but the next visit she came right out and started exploring the upstairs.  It didn’t take her long to find the stars down.

She was a bit startled when I came down too, as Rhea was facing her from the left.  No problem, she just continued down and took a right into the living room.  Rhea cut her off in the kitchen, and I didn’t want Anna to explore the garage so I moved ahead to block her. Her confrontation with Rhea went about the same.  A few hisses from Anna and a growl-meow.  Rhea stood it, and did give a little hiss as I picked Anna up to carry her upstairs.  I did take the chance to show Anna to Davout, who was on top of the white tree.  Another hiss from Anna!

I was a bit worried that Anna’s ‘clock’ for being handled would go off, as it did take a bit of time to cross the entire house back to her room but she took it well.

She seemed to have enjoyed the exploration well enough!

When  I got back downstairs, the kittens were forming a line of defense, about 3 feet from the garage door.  I gave them a nice rousing session of Da Bird to get them happy again.