I really need to add to this blog more often in the year since the last time I made an entry, we have moved apartments, Ringtail and all 8 of her kittens have found forever homes, and our own cats have continued to grow happy and healthy. Last Saturday morning, I went out to sweep our balcony, closing the screen behind me. However, when I tried to go back in, Sugar Paws and Coco Puff slid out onto the balcony and made a beeline for the corner where the potting soil sits behind a couple of chairs. It turned out that while the birds and squirrels had made themselves scarce while I swept, Chippy the Chipmunk had instead hid behind the potting soil. When I tried to get Sugie out from under the chair, it bumped the potting soil and Chippy bolted. Well, Sugie caught him and ran into the apartment with him! He was unhurt, but she dropped him and he escaped into the apartment. We locked all the cats up and started looking for him. Since we couldn't find him, we let the cats out. Sugie flushed him out, and we chased him toward the open screen door. Unfortunately, Finn tried to join the chase, so I didn't actually see whether he had gone out the door or doubled back. Since we didn't see him inside and the cats settled down, we figured he had got out.
Fast forward to Sunday night about 1:00 AM. We were awakened by a clatter and row in the living room and went in to find Sugie and Puff going behind the green chair and Wabble trying to get around the other end of the couch. We tried to move the couch, and out came Chippy! After a great deal of fuss and moving of furniture, he ran inside one of our big speakers. Since it was 1:30 by that time and we needed to be up by 6, we just put the speaker out on the balcony for the night, locked the door, went to bed, and hoped for the best. Monday morning, he was gone from the speaker, so we brought it back inside. But the cats are barred from the balcony for a few days just to let them know that catching chipmunks and turning them loose inside is not a good idea!
Cats -- gotta love 'em!
