Finally, ManSlave has been pestered by Faith to get the Sky Bridge up and running. What is the point in having all this outside space if we need Parentals to access it?  We have everything we need out there. Heating, water, beds, litter tray and now we can come and go and go and come as we please and don't have to settle for just staying put and looking from one CatPod to the other.

We have to climb 7ft in the air and run through and 8ft tunnel and down 7ft, but that is easy for us Devons. We are nimble and agile. Especially that Gracie. Grace by name... Me on the other hand am not Slinky at all and can often be found blocking the entrance or exit depending on your direction! I am not as skimpy and small as the others with my long stiff body. Really, Lillibet and I are in the same league there. She too has this very long body and no sooner has she left one end of the bridge, she is peeping out at the other end. This, of course, could be due to the speed at which she runs?

Gracie flew out of the Studio end, like being shot from a canon. She was chasing a buzzing thing. ManSlave had told her off about buzzing things and how they bite your paws and mouth when you try to catch one.  It doesn't stop her, she is young. Momma follows her about with Piriton, just in case. She will learn, one day? maybe? Until then, everyone watches with anticipation or is that trepidation?

Faith has been yelling. She yells on the bridge, in the hall, up the stairs, in the Studio, in the CatPod. It is endless. She never fails to wake up early and go to bed really late. My head is sore from her rumps advances and my face smells, well, more than usual. But maybe that has something to do with the fact I had it in the kitchen sink cleaning it for Momma. She likes to see her face in it. I like to oblige. Today was pasta water and tomato remnants, yesterday was canola oil. I just can't stop. I think I have OLD? Obsessive Licking Disorder!

KS =^..^=

Lots is going on here. Too much really and not much ORB shine, but today there was Orb Shine and we all lay out in J1's House of Fun (HoF). It's great out there, but the Parentals are already fed up with us mewling to go out and mewling to come in, so Momma has invented THE SKY BRIDGE!  It will pass between the two CatPods and into the enclosed bit which will now be Momma's Studio again, but with one exception, we have free rein of it when we want it, apparently!  So for the time being Faith and I sit in the corner of the big CatPod YAWPING as loudly as possibly until we are released into the outside world to run along to the pathway to the HoF.

It is a super place to really catch some Orb Shine too. A real little Orb trap, out of the wind and I can get the last dregs of it right up until 8pm some nights. Of course, there is still bedroom windows, but I have been restricted from these for fear of burning too much. Pfft to that! The pinker the better. I am a true Worshiper, I have waited eons for this superb light to filter into my old bones and warm me from my icy core. Yep. This is my time and no other feline had better cast it's shadow on me.

As I lay here soaking up the rays, Faith's shadow appears above me. She is all happy when I smile at her and say "Doll face". Oh to watch her delight as I pay her some desired attention. "Yes" she replies demurely, standing on tiny tippy toes, lifting paw after paw in delight. "Get out of my Orb Shine" I say and roll out of the way before she Thwakks me and tells me I am an uncaring sloth of a cat. ::Shrug:: Who cares. This Orb Shine is MINE all MINE!

KS =^..^=

Gracie has been to a show once before, but this time she went to a TICA show instead of a GCCF one - it's all letters to me, but essentially, one is American and one is English. This was a completely different type of show and the first time that Momma and Gracie had entered.  Thank heavens Momma had tons of help preparing Gracie for her debut seven ringed show. No put in a tiny cage and Momma leaving the hall, nope, Momma got to spend her entire day with Gracie in her arms, carrying her from ring to ring to meet judges from all over the world.  Everyone loved her colour. Some went to great lengths to comment on it. She is of the prettiest lilac and after some little touches from Miss Boucles with what looked like white shoe polish and chalk Gracie was spit spot and gleaming white too. 

I think Gracie might have enjoyed her day more if she had used the catloo, but to no avail all day and by the end of the day, she was a full bellied growly puss. Such a shame. Momma closed all the curtains on her show bed for privacy too.  But even so, she soldiered on to each ring, tucked in Momma's feather coat to keep her toasty and had a good look about with a scowly little face. Luckily, in one ring, she kept that scowly little face and beat a cat who had thrashed her six times that day. Gracie wasn't really that bothered, but Momma squealed like a stuck pig and it made everyone around her jump! Grand Mew Mew came too and saw Gracie beat the other very nice foreign Devon Rex, so that was really quite a highlight for the day. Unfortunately, Gracie didn't final in that ring as there were many many beautiful cats to chose from. But all the same, it was a little exciting for a short while and more dusting and shoe polish was applied 'just in case'.

I am not sure if Momma will take Gracie out again? Maybe to the TICA one in December if she hasn't had kittens by then? ManSlave doesn't want her to go again, but I think if she used her catloo, she would enjoy the day much much more. One to ponder on...

KS =^..^=

It is always so exciting to have something new in the house and this week was no exception. From a far distance place called China, our cat post arrived. It was a bargain. We never get new anything, Momma usually cobbles something together from this and that and covers it in Berber carpet and that lasts forever, but Momma being unable to do anything remotely like this anymore, she brought is a good solid one, that no doubt, one day will get the Berber treatment too once we have wrecked it!

Of course, ManSlave was so excited at the new delivery!!! Mmmm, well not particularly excited to have to carry a big box of heavy things up to the landing and then have to make it. But Gracie was on paw to make sure he had every screw and post in the correct place. She studdied the instructions hard and directed ManSlave whilst he huffed and puffed those wooden shelves into place with a balancing Gracie on each one, going higher and higher.

It was much bigger than the measurements on the internet. Yes the base was 40mm wide, but they failed to mention that the top shelves were double that. Oh dear. It looks like a giant tower and if the Parentals are not careful, they might take out a knee cap or two if they fail to walk diagonally from the bedrooms. Of course, it doesn't bother us and it was so we could be safe and not fall from the old one that was a pile on junk really. But to the Parentals horror, Gracie took a flying leap like one of those squirrels with wings, soaring around and around and landed on the floor running... she really is not a very dainty Devon at all. She likes to challenge running up the stairs and to be first to the top for kisses and pampering tummy tickles.

I, of course, was not part of the proceedings, I am too old for such things, but I did try it out once and then ran around the house Yawping. I am more for hiding in the box it came in and pouncing out on unsuspecting lilac and white kittens as they pass.

KS =^..^=   

I always thought squirrels were meant to hibernate in winter, but that was all a myth it seems. I know it to be true because Horrible Horace and his family seem to be at our feeding stations all the time. Today is no exception. There we were all thinking that the House of Fun was just for cats of an entire nature and in fact, as faith has been trying to tell us, it is in fact the very best place to watch squirrels, birds and pesky pigeons from. We are pleased as punch that squirrels don't hibernate now for seeing him and his jolly friends make us feel quite frisky. Especially when they are less than a sniffer away!

Gracie missed out terribly from our little adventure and no amount of coaxing or treats will make her set foot in the House of Fun. To her mind there is a big mean boy cat in there with a sock full of marbles and there is nothing that will change her mind. Nope. We even gave her squirrel cam and still she spat and hissed all the way back to the main house, dragging her newly washed tummy along the ground. Oh well, even more viewing space for us then. 

Faith couldn't wait to break into the second CatPod and as ManSlave went to take out rubbish, Faith hooked her claws into him for a free ride out. She screamed and screamed at the door until he relented and let her in. She squeaked with delight and padded all over the freshly washed bedding and rubbed herself along the windows in excitement. That drew Lillibet from her bed and off she went, following her Mother, the two of them in cahoots about which was the best view point. I, of course, only went out to make sure they were safe and found to my delight that J1 really had moved out and we had, to Faith's delight, moved in! Gracie might get over it eventually?

Either way, even if squirrels do not hibernate, I totally get the bigger dray thing now and feel quite happy about watching them play and thrash each other for our amusement. Now, who is watching who?  If only Squirrel was on the menu for Sunday Roasts!!

KS =^..^=