Why Do These Things Happen?

Thank heavens it’s warm enough for a good nap.  I was beginning to think that naps were going to be cold forever.

            We have just survived a most terrible time!  Last week, I think it was, the lights went out when Mom was getting ready to bake something.  She was not happy about that, because, at the same time, the heat went off, too.  Anyway, she didn’t think much about it, so we didn’t, either.  Mom thought the lights would be back on fairly soon, but she was terribly wrong!  She went to her class, and when she got back, it was still dark and getting very cold in our home, but she didn’t turn on the heat.  She put on a lot of clothes and after eating a little something, we all went to bed.  It wasn’t too bad when we were all snuggled up together.  Mom put some extra blankets on the bed and she got so warm that she was sweating.

            When we got up the next morning, it was colder than ever!  How horrible!  I hardly felt like eating, because it was so cold.  Mom said that Dad couldn’t get a train to come home, so it would be at least Monday before we had any lights.  I think that was two night times away, so she was not at all happy about it.  Mina and I spent all day under the comforter, so we could keep warm.  We all snuggled again that night (Mom says it was Saturday night), but the next morning was even colder!  I told Mom time and again that I was cold, but she didn’t do anything about it.  Why didn’t she just turn on the heat?  Why did Dad have to be here to get lights?  There are so many human things that I just do not understand!  Anyway, we ate breakfast and spent that day under the comforter, too.  That night, we all snuggled together once again to keep warm.  It would have been much easier to just turn on the heat!

            The next morning, which Mom said was Sunday, it was colder yet and I thought that we all were going to freeze to death.  I complained to Mom a lot, but still she did nothing.  When she came home from her night class, she brought a stranger upstairs with her, using a flashlight, put us in the box, and packed up our food and litter box.  We all rolled off in the stranger’s car to her house.  We were let out of the box in a place that had furniture (couches and chairs), lots of plants, and clothes on the drying rack.  It was warm!  Mom was out with the stranger for a while and then she came in and lay down on the couch and covered up with a comforter.  Mina and I let her sleep for a while, but we just had to talk to her about the new place and ask her if we were going to live there now.  How many moves can a person make?  Anyway, she kept telling us to be quiet and go to sleep, but we just couldn’t do it.

            In the morning, Mom spent some more time with the stranger and then a man and two boys looked in to see us.  Very soon, we were put into the carrier and everything packed up.  The stranger dropped us off at our place and left.  Mom carried us and everything else up the stairs to our apartment.  Oh, it was so cold!  We immediately went under the comforter.  Mom went out for a little bit that day, but then she got under the covers with us and spent most of the rest of the day there.  Finally, after dark, Dad came home.  It was warm in our bed that night, with the four of us in it.

            In the morning, as soon as he could, Dad left the house and came back quite a while later and said that we would have lights that night.  It would be better to have heat!  We spent the day under the comforter once again.  After dark, the lights suddenly came on and, coincidentally, so did the heat.  It has taken a very long time to get warm in here, and it’s not really all that warm, but it’s better than it was.  Mom and Dad are still cold, but they don’t complain too much.  Mina and I are not complaining, even though we would like it warmer.  At least all four of us are together and able to keep each other warm.  Mina and I always have the comforter, although sometimes I do sleep in the furry bed again.  It was too cold before, but now I have my heart cushion on my suitcase right next to the radiator and Mina sits on the kitchen radiator.  I’m so glad things are back to normal again.  Mom says it will get warmer, but it will just take a little time.

            Why did the heat go off at the same time the lights went out?  Mina and I could do just fine without lights, but Mom and Dad seem to like them a lot.  The heat, however, is a much different matter.  We were so cold!  How could Mom do that to us?  At least she could cook, but that didn’t do much for us, only for her.  She kept using a candle and a flashlight and she kept boiling water.  It felt a little bit warmer in the kitchen, but nowhere else.  Also, why didn’t she watch TV or something so we all could have cuddled together to keep warm?  Mom is very strange sometimes, always thinking of herself instead of us.

            Well, I think the comforter needs me, so I will be off for a nap.

 

Yours,

Apache

Home at Last?

Whee!!!  What fun there is here!

            We’ve been here in our new home for some time now, and it’s really beginning to feel like home.  The floors aren’t getting any warmer, but if I run fast enough, it’s not too bad.  I can really get up some speed running down the hall, and we have been joined here by Ribbon, Mousey, and others.  It’s great.  There is no one here to be scared of Mousey, and Ribbon has been very happy here, too.

            The bathroom is different from any bathroom I’ve ever seen, but it’s pretty neat.  It is all hard, both the floors and walls.  Mom has put our litter box in the bathroom, so now we are almost just like humans.  All we need now is to eat at the table, but I don’t think that is going to happen.  I like to go into the bathroom, even if I don’t need the litter box.  There is a funny curtain hanging by the shower, which is just part of the floor.  I often go into the shower and go around the curtain, since Mom leaves it open on both ends.  I can also watch her and Dad take showers.  Since it was pretty dusty and dirty at first, here in this new place, Ribbon kept getting dirty, so I took him to the shower and Mom washed him off and hung him outside to dry.  Now he is always clean, and I don’t have to keep putting him in the water bowl, except when Mom forgets to wash him.  I like to go up on the sink, too, and lick the water out of it.  I do that in the shower, too.  For some reason the water in the bathroom tastes good.

            As I mentioned earlier, it is easy to run fast down the hallway.  The floor is tile, so things (like Mousey) slide very easily and quickly.  He squeaks and squeaks as he speeds down the floor.  What fun!  The floors are awfully cold, though, so we spend a lot of time in the bedroom.  The floor there is not so cold, because it is not tile.  Also, our mattress and comforter are in the bedroom, as well as our furry beds.  Miss Patchy sleeps in the furry beds a lot, but I always prefer the bed.  Sometimes I jump up behind the window curtains and look out the window.  There are lots of people outside walking around, and lots of cars and trucks.  Lots of things to watch!  Sometimes small humans play with balls (just like me) and other things.  These small humans look pretty much like big humans, just smaller.  Miss Patchy is beginning to think that maybe there are baby humans after all.  She has not seen much herself, since she is unable to jump up on the window because of her back legs, so I have told her all about it.  She has looked down from the balcony and, I think, from the couch room, so she has seen a little bit.

            Speaking of the couch room, the door to it is almost always closed.  I would love to spend some time in there, but we can go in only when Mom is in there, and then she won’t let us get up on the furniture.  It is white and kind of furry (I was up on it once) and doesn’t look like any other furniture we’ve ever had.  It’s funny-shaped and has big pillows on it.  I think I could love it a lot.  At least the floor in the couch room is not cold, because there is a big rug on the floor.  The furniture looks very nice and comfortable and I would love to spend some time on it, but I haven’t figured out how to do so without Mom’s knowing that I’m doing it.  There also is a funny kind of curtain on the window, and I keep getting my claws caught in it.  That used to be all there was on the window, but Mom complained that the people across the street could look right in at night, so now there is a big, white curtain behind the funny one.  It keeps us from seeing into the windows across the street, so I guess those people can’t see in ours, either.  Mom likes that, because she is working a puzzle.  I don’t know why she likes to do that, as it means sitting in a chair for a long time, looking at little pieces of cardboard.  She picks some up and then puts them down, then picks up some more and puts them back down, until once in a while she smiles and says something and puts a piece somewhere else on the table, hooking it to others that are already there.  In a way, I like puzzles, too, but I like to pick up the little pieces that are hooked to the others and take them down to the floor to check them out.  I don’t see anything great about them, but since Mom keeps working with them, I keep trying to figure out what is so great about them.  Who can explain why Mom (or any other human) likes certain things?

            There is another room in this house, but it is very small, and Dad goes in there a lot by himself.  I am almost never allowed to go in there, but I want to check it out.  It smells good, and there is a hole in the floor with water in it.  Mom keeps the bucket and mop in there, too.  It also is all tiled, like the bathroom.  Mom calls it a squatter.  I don’t know what that means, but Mom says she will not ever use it, except for storing the mop and bucket.

            Well, it’s getting late, and I have a lot of playing to catch up on, so I will be back later.

Regards,

Mina

New Beginnings

Well, I’ve had a good, warm nap.  It’s so nice to have a comfortable bed with warm covers.

It happened one night.  Dad bundled Mina and me into the box and packed all of our stuff in a big car with lots of seats and all those boxes that smell like Mom.  The ones that were in the basement at Office.  Mina has been so terrified and depressed since Mom left that she can’t even talk to me.  Anyway, there we were in the box in the big car and we began to roll.  Memmet [sic] was driving (Mom says he is a better driver than Dad) and Mina and I fell asleep.  When we woke up, we heard Mom’s voice!  Hallelujah!  She’s not dead after all.  She got in the big car with us and told Memmet [sic] where to drive.  Pretty soon, we were stopped on a street.  Mom and Dad tried to unlock a door, but their keys didn’t work.  They tried to wake someone up, but that didn’t work, either.  Mom left, and the rest of us stayed behind.  Dad and Memmet [sic] took all the boxes and things (including us) out of the big car and he drove away.  Dad and we spent the night on the sidewalk with our boxes.  When it got light, the door opened and someone who lives on the street helped Dad to get the boxes and things up some stairs.  Mom came later and was so glad to see us, almost as glad as we were to see her.  When everything was up the stairs, Mom and Dad let us out of the box and there we were in a place with several rooms.  We were scared, but there really wasn’t any place to hide.  There wasn’t any furniture or anything.  There was a refrigerator and a washer, but no furniture.

Our furry beds were there, so we napped, while Mom and Dad left.  We were lonely and scared, but at least we felt pretty safe.  When Mom and Dad came back, they put the memory foam mattress on the hard bed and tried to sleep.  Dad was successful, but Mom tossed and turned all night.  It was hard to sleep with them because of that and the hardness of the bed.

The next day, Mom and Dad were gone all day again, and we explored and slept.  They came back off and on, bringing things that they had bought.  The next day was pretty much the same, except some men brought a big mattress that they put in the bedroom.  It was nice and comfortable.  Sometimes they really do think of Mina and me.  It was very thoughtful of them to buy us such a nice mattress.  Mom put sheets, blanket, and comforter on it.  Oh, how nice it was!  She had a pillow, too.  Then Dad brought a small table for the kitchen, and then a white thing for on top of the counter.  Mom said she will cook on that.  The man who helped Dad bring things up from the street came back and did something with the washer and the cooker thing.  Is this finally home?  Mom had her coffee maker and her electric tea kettle and a few frying pans, but how were we to live here without more furniture?  Actually, Mina and I had enough for us, but we didn’t see how Mom and Dad were going to live with it.  Of course, it turned out to be just Mom and us, as Dad left as soon as the man was done with the washer and the cooker thing.

Some men came a few days later and did some things in the kitchen.  They made the heat thing stop leaking and did some things to the kitchen cabinets.  Mom cleaned and cleaned, because there was a lot of dust in the house.  She calls it an apartment.  She calls it home.  Dad came to visit once and it was really good to see him.  We thought maybe he would stay, but he had to go back to his mother’s house.  Mom says that he will come to live with us when the business is settled, but then he will go to Europe for a while before he is here all the time.

Mom has gone out sometimes and has been gone for a whole day sometimes.  She says she is teaching English at a school.  I’m not sure what English is or, for that matter, what a school is, but if she can teach it, that’s fine, as long as she has time for us.  Most days she is home with us, but on the weekends she is gone most of the time.  She bought some big kettles, and cooked more food for us which, by the way, is very delicious, although Mina doesn’t eat it.

The mattress is very comfortable.  We usually spend most of the day under the comforter, as this place is not always very warm.  There are heat things, but Mom doesn’t always turn them on, so it gets cold sometimes.  Also, they usually go off at night and Mom has to start them up again in the mornings.  It is not a bad place, but the floors are very cold sometimes and make my feet and legs hurt.  I sleep in the furry bed a lot, too, not just under the comforter.

Speaking of sleeping, I think I hear a nap calling my name.

Yours,

Apache

What Now?

I’ve just had a much-needed nap.  Things have been hectic and I get so tired.

Mom has been packing, packing, and repacking.  Now she says that she will fly home by herself and Dad will bring us later.  Plans keep changing over and over again.  She says she has her ticket and will be going home on September 11.  I don’t know when that is, but it must be soon.  She says she doesn’t want to leave us here, so why will she?  Why doesn’t she just stay, too?  We don’t want her to go.  It’s not that we don’t love Dad, because we love him a lot, we just need both of them here with us.

Now there has been another change.  Dad got a call the other day and said that someone wanted to give Mom a job.  There is that job thing again.  At least they don’t want to give me a job!  She and Dad went away early one day and came back at night.  They seemed pretty happy, now they say that Mom will not be flying away.  Well, that’s okay with me, but I’m not sure what has happened to change things.  We are still here in these two rooms, both Mom and us, and everything seems to be the same.

On another day, Mom packed up her two big suitcases and she and Dad left the house.  They were gone several days, but only Dad came back.  Where is Mom?  Has she actually flown away?  Mina and I are very concerned.  Mom has escaped from prison, but we are still here.  It’s true that we have Dad, and sometimes he sleeps on the bed where Mom slept.  In fact, sometimes he lets us come out of our rooms and sleep with him in the couch room.  Dad’s mother sleeps there on the couch.  I know that her knees hurt her a lot, so I decided to go and lie on them to keep them warm for her, but she didn’t like it very much.  Sometimes humans just have no sense at all.  Anyway, we can go into the couch room at night, so that’s some improvement over our two rooms.  Why couldn’t we have done that sooner, when Mom was still here?  Life is just a big mystery sometimes.  We do not see Mom at all, so maybe she has left us for good and we will never see her again.  That would be horrible!

I miss Mom so much!  Where can she be?  I’m sure she wouldn’t just leave us, but what else can I think.  Dad is gone most of every day, and his mother goes with him, so we are all alone in our two prison rooms.  I think I will go crazy.  There have just been way too many changes in our lives, and too many people coming and going, and Mom going away a lot.  What if we never see her again?  Mom, Mom, wherever you are, please come home to your babies!  We love you and miss you.  Please come back!  Dad says that we will be with her soon in our new home.  Right!  Where have we heard that one before?  A new home.  Sure!  Maybe Mom is dead!

I have to sleep now.  If I don’t, I think I will go over the edge!

Yours,

Apache

Back Again

            I haven’t felt much like playing lately.  We spent a couple of days at the new place to live, but we didn’t like it at all.  I found a cozy place in the half kitchen room, right behind the cabinets.  It was a little hard to get out of, but it was worth it.  No one could get to me there, or so I thought.

            We didn’t like the place because it smelled bad and had some gritty dust all over it.  The dust is what was smelling bad.  There were lots of dogs around outside last night, and we didn’t like that either.  All the windows were closed, too.  It was awfully lonely without Mom and Dad.  We’ve stayed alone before, but in our own home, so it wasn’t so terribly bad.  We still had familiar things around us for comfort.  Miss Patchy says she thinks that they don’t love us anymore.  I’m not so sure, but she could be right.

            Before they left to go home the second day, Dad got me out from behind the cabinet and put me in the carrier with Miss Patchy.  We were both pretty mad about that, and then riding in that car again.  The car stopped a couple of times and we thought that we were going to have a long trip again, like before.  However, the last time we stopped, we all got out and they took us back into the house again.  We’re not crazy to be back where Dad’s mother is, but it’s better than that awful new place to live.  They apologized to us and said we could stay at the house.  We will have to watch Dad’s mother, though; she is sneaky and always leaves the door open.  Sometimes I think she wants us to go outside, but I’ve been out there and it’s not all that great.  It was fun to chase the cat Mom calls Little Bit, but it’s a little scary out there, too.  There are lots of dogs barking all the time, especially at night.

            I would like to check out the kitchen, but when I am allowed out for a few minutes, the kitchen door is always closed.  I know it’s the kitchen, because I can smell food in there.  Miss Patchy doesn’t seem to care a lot, because she sleeps most of the time.  When we do go out of our rooms, most of the other doors are closed to us, so we really can’t explore at all.  I’m so bored in those two rooms.  I know every little tiny place and everything that is in them.  I have looked out the back window and the side window uncountable times.  There’s really nothing much to see out the side window, except for a wall and, occasionally, Little Bit or one of her friends as they walk through there.  Where will Little Bit live in the cold weather?  Mom says it will get very cold here.  Then I will be glad to be in these two rooms instead of outside with the outside cats.

            Well, I’m getting sleepy from boredom, and there’s nothing much to play with.  I can’t find ribbon, and Mom says that Dad’s mother doesn’t like my squeaky mice because they scare her.  She thinks they’re real when she first sees them.  She doesn’t like mice, I guess.  That’s too bad, because Miss Patchy says they taste pretty good.  Oh well, I guess there’s no accounting for tastes.

            I will take a nap and try to find something to play with later.  If I take a nice, long nap now, I can be awake when Mom is sleeping and maybe I can get her to play with me then.

Regards,

Mina

A New Place

            I can’t seem to nap very well, but I did sleep last night.  I’m tired though, and a little scared.

            Well, it actually does exist!  We came to the new place to live yesterday.  I’m still a little afraid of it and its strange noises and lots of human voices, but Mom says I will get used to it.  Dad’s mother comes here during the day, and I don’t like that, but at least we can get away from her and hide.  Mom fed us before she left, but she was here for quite a while after she fed us and then I was very hungry.  They came this morning, but it was pretty late, and I was half starved.  Mina always has her dry food in the dish, so she almost never gets hungry.

            Mom and Dad found us in the basement this morning.  It is cooler down there, but they were upset because our paws were so dirty.  Why all this concern over dirty paws?  I will get them clean.  Why isn’t the basement clean, anyway?  I don’t get it.  My paws would stay very clean if the basement was clean.  However, they say they don’t want us in the basement.  I don’t know why.  It’s a very interesting place.  There are lots of things down there that smell very familiar, lots of boxes with stuff in them.  They smell like Mom, so I like it there.  Mom comes down to the basement and does stuff with the things in the boxes.  I like it that she is there, as it is very comforting.

            Besides Mom, Dad, and Dad’s mother, there is another person here.  I think Mom and Dad said that he is Dad’s nephew.  He seems okay, but I’m just not sure yet.  Mom gets upset because I hiss at her, but all this is just so new and frightening.  Mom says that later on Dad, Mina, and I will fly back home.  There is that silly delusion about flying!  We still have no wings!  Very strange ideas that humans get into their heads!

            Dad took me upstairs to eat breakfast, but I didn’t feel all that hungry.  I ate a little and then went back to the basement.  I saw Dad’s mother on the way down, and I almost turned around to go back up.  However, she just stayed on the couch and didn’t wave any cloth at me, so I eventually continued on down to the basement.  There is a door to go outside on the way down, but I don’t think I want to go out.  We heard dogs last night, and I think they are always right outside the door.

            We found the litter box.  Of course, yesterday Mom let us out of the carrier right by it, so it wasn’t too hard to find.  It’s good to have all the comforts of home; I just wish we were really home.  Mom says we will go home – I can hardly wait!  Where we are living now is called Office.  That seems odd to me, because in the house called Phoenix, we had a room called Office.  Mom kept her computer and stuff in that room.  There is a computer here, but other rooms, too.  It’s confusing.  In one room, there is a big couch and a closet thing, but not much else other than bags and boxes.  When we go upstairs from there, there is a sort of bathroom.  Mina says that she thinks she could use that instead of going down to the litter box, but I don’t know.  There is a big hole in the floor and I could slip.  Lots of water in that room, too.  The room where I hide is sort of like part of a kitchen.  There is what looks like a counter top, a funny round sink, and some cabinets.  Then there is another room where there is a refrigerator and some cabinets.  There are some windows in that room, but they are up high.  Mina will be able to get up there, but I don’t think I will be able to.  There is also a window in the couch room.  That one I can see out of.  The door downstairs from there was covered from the outside, so we couldn’t see out at all.  This is a pretty strange place.

            In the big couch room, there is something that looks like a chair lying on its back.  I’m not sure why it would be like that.  It’s much easier to sit on when it is standing up.  I don’t think that Mina and I can set it up, so we will have to wait and see if Dad or Mom will do it.  I think it would be nice to lie on.

            Well, Mina is back behind the cabinets in the part-kitchen room.  She can get out on her own, so no one is worried about her.  I’m sure I couldn’t even get down into that space, let alone get out, so I’m not even going to try.  Lying in the cabinet is good enough for me.

            I think it is time to take a nap.  I got tired eating and coming back down to the basement, so I need this nap.

Yours,

Apache

Why Are We Still in Prison?

            I can’t find Mousey anywhere.  Mom says that he was totally bald, but he was still fun to play with.  He is probably just hiding somewhere.  I’ll have to look around some more.  At least Ribbon is still here and full of fun.

            Mom says that soon we will be in a better place to live and will have plenty of room to run and play.  That’s good, but she keeps saying that, and it keeps being a lot longer than soon.

             I have found a new place to hide when Mom and Dad are gone.  Dad’s mother keeps coming into the room when they are gone and she keeps waving a cloth at me.  I am very scared of her, since she doesn’t know how to talk, she just makes noises with her mouth.  Dad seems to know what those noises mean, though, and he can make those same noises.  Anyway, I have found a way to get up under not just the blanket, but under the memory foam mattress, too.  The first time I hid there, Mom came in and couldn’t find me.  She called and called, and Dad was afraid that his mother had let me get out, but Mom finally found me.  I don’t know how she does that.  How can she know that I am under the covers or the mattress?  It’s a puzzle to me.  I know she can’t see me, and I can’t see her.  I’ll have to think a lot about that.

            I have been going “stir crazy,” at least that’s what Mom calls it.  I just can’t get up much speed running in two rooms.  I hope there will be more rooms in the new place, if we ever get there.  I’m beginning to think that it doesn’t actually exist and that Mom is just making it up to make us feel better.  That would be cruel, I think.

            I saw one of the outside felines the other day.  How lucky they are to be able to run around anywhere they want, with no one to put them in prison or tell them stories of another place that probably doesn’t even exist.  If Mom wasn’t so good to us, I think I would seriously try to get out and join the outside felines.  They are all small, so I don’t think I would have a problem with them.

            I have learned how the doors open.  There are handles that I can grab hold of.  I tried to open the door a few nights ago, but Mom put a box in front of the door.  Mom told Dad that she doesn’t think I am heavy enough to actually pull all the way down on the handle.  Maybe I need to eat more!  Mom says she doesn’t want me to get out because there is mouse poison around.  Also, she says that Dad’s mother would have a fit because of my fur getting on stuff.

            A stranger came to visit the other day and, even though Dad’s mother doesn’t like us, she brought the visitor in to see us.  The visitor seemed nice, and Memmet [sic] was here, too.  I think I like him, as he is a lot like Dad.  I have allowed him to pet me a little bit.  Mom said that the visitor is Dad’s sister.  So, we have a brother, a sister, and a mother.  Are there more yet?  Too many people!  Miss Patchy does not seem to mind so much anymore if anyone comes into the room.  She is really getting old and forgetting how things should be.

            Well, I have to take a nap now so I will be up for some good playing later.

Regards,

Mina

Just We Two - What Have We Done Wrong?

I have played quite a bit lately, as I am getting used to this place.  There’s not much room to play, but every now and then I can jump over Miss Patchy and sometimes somebody will help me to play with Ribbon.

Well, we are in prison.  No matter how you look at it, we are in prison.  That’s Miss Patchy’s conclusion, and I believe her.  Every time someone comes into the room or leaves the room, we are pushed aside, or told “No!,” and the human goes out quickly and shuts the door on us.  I’m not sure why we are in prison, but it’s not a lot of fun.  There are no bars, like you see on TV, but we are in prison, just the same.  I so much want to explore the rest of this house, and I did a little bit the day I hid in the attic, but since that day, we are not allowed out of our cell, I mean our rooms.  At least we have good food and water, litter box, and Mom to snuggle with at night and sometimes during the day, but it is still prison.  At least at home we could go out on the patio and watch the buzz birds and bugs, and smell the fresh air, and feel the sunshine on our bodies.  I always rolled on the cement as soon as I could get out the door.  Mom would always get a little mad, because she said I got dust all over my fur.  Who cares about a little dust?  Well, I guess Mom does.

What I need is some place to run.  I’m afraid my legs will get stiff or something if I don’t get to have a good run pretty soon.  Mom says that soon we will have plenty of room to run, but I have my doubts about that.  She keeps promising.  I think we will be stuck here for the rest of our lives.  We do have windows, but most of them just show us a wall.  One window shows us the back wall, a little place with some holes that are covered up (Mom says it’s called a tandir) with a little roof over it, some dead grass beyond the wall, and some other houses.  There are some birds flying around sometimes, and once in a while we can see a human.  We also hear some funny bird sounds.  Mom says they are roosters crowing, and hens cackling.  You could not prove it by me, because I don’t know what that is.  Mom says that they are chickens.  (Why not just say chickens?)  That makes Miss Patchy happy, because she loves chicken.  I don’t know what she would do with a noisy one, though.  If it is alive, wouldn’t it fight with Miss Patchy?  If you can live in a turkey, can you live in a chicken?  How big are they?

It would be nice, but very scary, to go outside.  There are a lot of strange humans, and we have heard other felines out there.  Sometimes the other felines have been in the house, because we have smelled them, especially in the basement and the attic.  I’m not sure why I like the attic so much, but it is warm and comforting somehow.

Another thing about this prison is that Mom’s computer is always here, so we have easy access to it when she’s not around.  Miss Patchy has learned how to get on the internet with Dad’s phone.  It isn’t always around, so we can’t go online all the time, but we can have fun playing games and writing stuff to publish online later.  Mom keeps the dirty clothes in here, too, as well as the detergent she uses to wash them.  After she washes the clothes, they smell like the outdoors.  Is the dryer outside?  There are a lot of things that Miss Patchy and I do not understand about this house, besides why we are kept in prison, but I guess it could be worse.  It is clean and dry and has lots of things from home.  I will try to like it here.

I hear mousey calling me to play, so I’d better go.  Miss Patchy is already asleep, since she got rid of a big hairball this morning, and her stomach was hurting her.  She’s better now, but she needs her nap.

Regards,

Mina

Just We Two - Are Things Getting Better?

Naps are my life right now.  That’s about all we can do, since we are stuck in two rooms.

               I must say, though, that things are getting better.  Even though we have just two rooms, the food is good – Dad cooked it, and the closet is comfortable.  Mom complains about fur on the suitcases, but why is that a problem?  Anyway, both Mina and I are feeling better about everything.  Even the litter is good.  It does not smell at all like the stuff we had at home.  It doesn’t smell at all, so I never feel bad about stepping in it.  There are no lumps or anything to get in the way.

               I have been feeling a lot better recently.  My legs do not hurt so much.  Mom says she is putting something in my food to help.  I guess it is working.  She put stuff in the food at home, but it did not work as well.  Dad said he paid a lot for it, so he is very glad it is working so well.

               There are other cats around.  We can smell them and sometimes hear them outside the windows.  A little while ago, Mina and I were allowed out of our rooms, and we explored.  Mom said we could go outside in the garden, but we didn’t feel very secure about that.  It was a hot day, so I went down into the basement.  It was very dark and cool there, and I could smell the other cats, but they weren’t there when I went down.  I stayed down for a while, and Mom was really mad when I came up.  She said I was very, very dirty and she made me take a shower.  Oh, how I hated that.  After the shower, she said I was still very dirty.  I don’t like her saying that.  I take great pride in my appearance.  She still says it, but also says that I am getting cleaner.

               Mina was gone all day and into the darkness.  Mom and Dad were calling for her all over.  They were afraid that she had panicked and run far away and was unable to find her way back.  Personally, I think it would be good riddance!  Anyway, they all were sitting at the table out front, on what Mom calls the front porch when evidently Mina showed her face.  Instead of the basement, she had spent all day in the attic.  It was dirty up there, too, but she didn’t have to take a shower.  Mom said she was dirty, but not as bad as I was.  I’ll bet!  The little sneak!  Because of the basement and the attic, we are no longer allowed out of our rooms, and we really don’t want to go out.  Too much happens then.

Mom tried to take me outside one day, but I got away and went up to the attic and got dusty.  She chased me out and down the stairs.  After that, the door was accidently left open, and Mina ran up to the attic.  Dad was angry, but he got her down pretty soon.  At least it’s quiet in our rooms and nothing bad happens.  We also haven’t been in the car for a long time, so that’s a good thing.

               Mina is feeling a lot better now.  She is eating more (actually, quite a lot), and she has been playing at night.  Last night, I did a little playing and explored up in the cupboard in Mom’s room.  She heard me jiggle the glass things and woke up.  She was blaming Mina until she turned on the light and saw that it was me.  I’m so glad I feel better.  It’s very possible that now I can do stuff and Mina will be blamed.  That sounds like fun!

               One thing that we don’t like here is the vacuum cleaner.  I thought the one at home was bad, but this one is very big and very loud.  I hate it when Mom or Dad uses it.  Mom says we keep getting fur and stuff on the rugs.  That’s it, blame us!  She gets stuff on the rug, too.  We aren’t the only ones.

               Today, I threw up on one of the rugs.  Just a little bit on the rug and a lot on the cardboard under our food dishes.  Dad cleaned it up.  He is very nice and does a lot of things for Mom, and she really appreciates it.

               Well, it’s still daylight, time for another nap.  I wouldn’t want to waste the daylight.  I also must get ready for the night!

Yours,

Apache

Constant Fear

I have played a little bit, but I’m not really feeling up to it much lately.

We have come to a place where we seem to be staying for a while.  It is nice not to be in the box anymore, but it’s kind of a scary place.  We are kept mainly in two rooms, with some air coming through and some windows to look out of.  However, there’s not much to see, mostly a wall.

Last night, the windows in the room where Mom sleeps were open and had screens on them.  Before, just a window on top was open, and we couldn’t get to it.  The bottom windows’ being open was very nice, as we could hear a lot more things.  That was not always a good thing, though.  Some time after dark, a loud man’s voice came in the window.  He was sort of singing, and it was scary.  Both Miss Patchy and I were scared, but Mom wasn’t.  Maybe the man’s voice is not so bad, but if I hear it again, I think I will still be afraid.  Mom says we shouldn’t worry about it, because the man, who she says is called a muzin [sic] is praying for us and everyone, so we should be happy to hear it.  I’ll have to think about that.  I’m not sure what praying is, but the way Mom says it, I think it isn’t a bad thing.

Miss Patchy and I mostly stay in Mom’s closet, because we feel safe there.  In the last few days, Mom has let us come out of the two rooms, and there is a kitchen, and another room where people sit and sleep.  There are also some bathrooms, although one of them seems strange to me.  It smells like a toilet, but it doesn’t look like a toilet.  It looks like a hole in the floor, and there is a water place there, too.

When we are out of the two rooms, sometimes a strange person comes out.  Mom says it is Dad’s mother.  She scares me, though.  The hair on her head has all kinds of colors on it that are sometimes pretty, and she ties it under her chin.  Every day it is different.  I have never seen hair like that before.  She always has glasses on, unlike Mom and Dad, who just wear them sometimes.  Her clothes come to the floor, so I’m not sure that she has legs, or what.  Also, her voice is scratchy and loud.  Sometimes in the morning, I have heard her head whistle and squeak.  Mom says that it is her hearing aid we hear whistling.  I don’t know what that is.  She is very frightening to me.  When she gets up, Miss Patchy and I go to the closet and stay there.

Mom found the other litter box yesterday – the one she calls portable.  She couldn’t find it before, so we were using part of my box.  Now it will smell all the time.  I hope I don’t ever have to get in it again, because I hate it, and the smell will make it worse.

Mom says that this is our new home.  I don’t know if I like it.  Maybe if I can get to know the rest of the place it will be better.  It smells funny, though, and neither Miss Patchy nor I like the smell.  It’s very strong!  Mom says it is mothballs that we smell.  Ugh!  There are a lot of other unfamiliar smells, too.  I need to investigate them in order to know what they are all about.

Dad cooked us some food, but I still just prefer the dry food.  It smells nice, but I just don’t like it.  Miss Patchy has trouble eating the dry food, because she doesn’t have a lot of teeth left, so she needs to eat the wet food.  I think that’s funny!  I have all of my teeth!  Does that make me better than Miss Patchy?  I think so.

I miss home very much, but I think it is gone and we are now here, and will never see home again.  Mom says that we flew.  I don’t believe it.  I think we came in a great big car.  Miss Patchy and I were in our boxes in a little room, and it vibrated a lot, but we still did not have any wings, so how could we have been flying?  Birds fly, and bugs fly, but felines do not fly, neither do humans.  Silly Mom!

Mom says that we are now living in the turkey that she and Dad have been talking about for a long time.  That’s another silly thing she has said.  It doesn’t smell like a turkey, and I don’t see any meat.  How could we be in a turkey?  Mom is strange sometimes, but I love her anyway.  I love to lie on her chest and put my paws around her neck.  Then I purr a lot and she pets me.  It is a wonderful time.

Well, I need to think about playing.  Ribbon has come here, too, and so has mousey, so not everything is strange.  Mom also brought the furry beds.  It’s too warm for them now, but maybe it will be cold here, too.  It’s time to think about playing.

Regards,

Mina

Just We Two - Oh, No!!!

At least I have had a nice nap!

Well, it was as I suspected, we were unceremoniously put into our boxes and put in the car.  Off we rolled and got out in a very noisy place.  We went inside where there were way too many humans, making way too much noise.  Mom talked to someone and gave her the two suitcases she has been packing and then we had to go somewhere else, to a quiet place.  We waited in a narrow hallway for a while, then someone came with a flat stick (Mom called it a scanner), and Mom had to take each of us out of our boxes and hold us tight while a man put the stick inside our boxes, then by us.  We were both glad to go back inside the boxes, as they were not nearly as scary as the hallway and the man with the stick.

After that, Mom said goodbye to us and walked away!  We were terrified!  Where was Mom going?  We were with strangers!  Later on, someone came and took us in our boxes outside, then into a little room.  Mom was nowhere around.  Mina was a little panicky.  A little while later, the little room began to vibrate and there was a lot of noise.  The room continued to vibrate and, since I was very sleepy, I went to sleep.  I think Mina did, too.  We woke up when someone picked up our boxes, took us outside again, and put us into another small room.  This one also vibrated and made a lot of noise.

Finally, after sleeping for a while, the vibrating stopped and someone came and took our boxes outside again and then into a big, noisy place.  Our boxes were on a rolling thing.  All of a sudden, there was Mom.  She appeared to be very happy to see us, almost as happy as we were to see her.  We thought we would never see her again.  She told us that we were in Brussels (Brussels sprouts?).  I don’t know where or what it is, and I sure don’t know how we got there.  Anyway, before long, there was Dad.  We hadn’t seen him for a long time, and it was nice to see him again.  All the suitcases were piled on the rolling thing with us and we rolled outside, to where Dad’s car was.  We were packed into the car with a whole lot of other stuff.  Mom said we had flown here.  What delusions!  I still don’t have any wings.

After rolling for a while, the car stopped and we all got out and went into one of those little houses again.  Mom put down the litter box, although we didn’t know that’s what it was at first, because it smelled funny.  Dad put some dirt in it, but we still weren’t sure, so Mom peed in it a little, and then we knew.  What a relief!  We had some food to eat, and water to drink.  Not much like home, but it was not bad.

In the morning, everything was packed up and off we rolled once again.  We stopped several times, but kept right on rolling through the night and all the next day.  Mom and Dad ate, but we didn’t!  Not that we were all that hungry.  All that rolling just makes us sleepy.  We continued to roll through the next night.  Mom said something about beljum, luxburg, frans, switz . . ., itali.  We stopped at a place and waited for a while, then the car drove onto a boat.  They called it a ferry.  We went upstairs on the boat and there were lots of people, none of whom seem to know how to talk.  It was just gibberish coming out of their mouths, although I could tell that a lot of them liked us.  After dark, we went to a really tiny house.  Mom and Dad slept on tiny, little beds and we just explored the tiny bathroom and that was pretty much it.  At least we had food and litter box.

In the morning, we got into the car again and rolled off.  Where to?  Who knows?  Mom said there were lots of trees and said something about grease.  We could not see the trees or the grease, since we were pretty well packed in.  They finally let us out of the boxes, so we could move around and see stuff, but it was a little scary.  Things were moving by the car so fast!  We sat with Mom for a little while, but it was better just to find a comfortable place and go to sleep.  When the daylight was gone and it had been dark for a while, we stopped again.  We stayed there for some time, while Dad went into places and handled a lot of papers.  Then we went to another place to stop and we there even longer, with more papers.  Finally we were able to roll again, and we found another little house to sleep in.  Mom says we are in the turkey now.  Somehow it's just not what I expected.  I thought there would be a lot of meat and bones.  Maybe Mom is just kidding me.  This just doesn't look like something to eat, since there are trees and houses and stuff in it.

The morning brought more packing up and we rolled off again.  Before too long, we came to a place where we parked.  Mom and Dad went off somewhere and left us in the car.  They came back a long time later (long after dark), opened the back of the car, and showed us to some people.  Finally they got in the car and we rolled off again.  Fortunately, it was not too long before we stopped at a little house again.  Those stops are always nice, though small.  Dad did not stay in the little house with us. 

In the morning, we rolled off again, and then Mom and we stayed at another little house, while Dad went somewhere else.  It was all a little confusing to us, but bearable.  After all that, we rolled away again in the morning, but just a little way.  We went to an actual house, where we were put into a room with our litter box and some food.  The door was shut and we were alone.  We looked around a little, but then slept.  Mom and Dad came back later, but then things were packed up once more and off we went, rolling down the road at night.  All the other stuff was out of the car, just a few suitcases and us, plus four humans.  When we stopped (after a long nap), the air smelled different.  We went into a place they called an apartment.  It had two rooms and a bathroom, with some outdoor places with screens on them.  Sort of like the patio at home, but up off the ground.  It was nice there, even though Mom and Dad, Dad’s brother, and mother came and went a lot.  One day, Mom slept most of the day, because she was so tired from all the rolling we had done.  She was tired?!!!!  What about us?  The next day, they all came back smelling different again.  In fact, they were wet and it smelled like funny-type water.  Mom said they were at the beach and that we were in a place called Alanya.  After two days, we went back to the house and our room.  Mom slept in the next room, and she opened the door between us so we could have a little more room.

All of these memories are making me very tired, so I must go and take a nap.

Yours,

Apache