The New Normal

            Well, we lived in the turkey for quite some time.  Mom says it was three years.  We never got to know any of the cats who lived outside in the neighborhood.  I guess they were busy living and didn’t have time for us.  They said that we were spoiled and just were not their kind.  So, as Mom would say:  “Their loss!”

            You may think that this looks like Miss Patchy’s voice, but it is me, Mina.  I will try to catch you up on the long time it has been since my last post.  Our life was pretty good while we were in the turkey, but some say that “all good things must come to an end.”  I think they may be right.

            One day, Mom and Dad began to put things in boxes.  Oh-oh!  I’ve seen that before, and it never means good things.  They also packed a lot of clothes in the two big suitcases.  It made me afraid.  I was right to be afraid, although that part of life is over and I now must go on.  Dad had been gone for most of the time we lived in the turkey.  We missed him a lot, but it didn’t seem to matter to him.  He was always good to us when he was home, but it just was not very often.  Mom cooked a lot of things, including our food made with chicken.  I won’t eat it, but Miss Patchy loves it.  Mom found some really good litter there, and things were quite odorless.

            To get back to my update:  one day, Dad’s brother, Mehmet, came, and he spent the night.  The next morning, both Miss Patchy and I were put into one box and we and the suitcases were taken out to a car.  Oh no, here we go again!  Mehmet was driving and Dad sat in the front seat and Mom was in the back with us.  We drove for a long time, and then we were in a big place with people running around everywhere.  It was noisy, and neither I nor Miss Patchy liked it.  Mom said it was an airport in Ankara.  Finally, after sitting around for a long time, we walked down a long hall, and went outside and got into some sort of big thing (Mom called it an airplane).  There were lots of seats in the thing and Mom and Dad sat in two of them and we (in one box) and the computer sat with them.  There were a lot of people and a lot of different smells.  Every now and then, a stranger would look at us and say something to Mom and Dad.  Usually, I think they were admiring us and that made us proud.  The thing we were in seemed to begin to move and roar and then it got very light-feeling, and it got a little quieter, except that there was a sort of whistling sound along with the roar.  We were in the thing for a while and then it began to roar again and there were some clunking noises from beneath our box.  It was a little scary, since we had no idea what was going on.  Mom said we were flying.  More of her delusions!

            We got out of the thing then, and went into a very big place where there were a lot of people.  They were everywhere!  Mom said it was in the airport in A Stand Bull.  It took a while, standing in lines, but then we were running down a hall.  Dad dropped our box a couple of times, but he continued to run after picking us up.  We finally stopped running and we all piled into another big thing with lots of seats.  Again, we were there with Mom and Dad and people admired us.  More roaring and more light-feelings and whistling.  Once again the roars and clunkings and we got out of the thing.  Mom said we were in an airplane, both times, and that we had one more to go.  She said that we were in Switzerland.  Let me tell you that airports are big and noisy and certainly would not be nice places to live!

            The third airplane was the biggest of all, and we were looked at by lots of people and some of those people kept asking if we needed anything.  They were very nice, but we were safe in our box, keeping each other company.  Miss Patchy was not happy about any of it.  She had not been feeling very good for some time, and these airplanes were very hard on her.  More roaring and light-feeling.  We stayed for a very long time on the third airplane until there was more roaring and clunking and then we got out and into another airport.  We had to stand in line for a while until some people asked Mom and Dad questions.  Then we went to another place and answered some questions.  Finally, we went out into the air.  It was dark, and the place smelled somehow familiar, as though we had been there before, maybe a long time ago.

            We got into another big thing that Mom called a bus.  Lots of seats and our box was put up on a seat so everyone could see us.  We didn’t cry at all, the whole time, but we were really happy to get out of that bus, but then we were loaded into a car!  In the car was Linda, Mom’s daughter.  It was nice to see her again, as it had been some time.  We drove for a while and then we got out of the car and went into a familiar-smelling house, but some different feline smells, too.  Miss Patchy was happy to say that she did not detect the odor of the nasty Mr. Purr.  In fact, she did not smell any of the felines who were there before, but there were plenty of new smells.

            We went up to two rooms and we were let out of our box.  It was familiar, but still a little scary.  The second room was where we had a hiding place when we had been there before, and we looked and looked for it, but it was gone.  Miss Patchy went downstairs a few times and told me that the new felines treated her with great respect.  One time, she went up on a couch and sat next to Mom.  She told me that there were four felines downstairs – a gray one called Spencer, two orange brothers called Felix and Sammy, and a black female named Holly.  Based on her word, I tried going downstairs a few times, but gray Spence came up the stairs and began to hiss and growl at me.  I hissed and growled back, but we never actually got into a fight.  He ran back downstairs and I ran back up and into our rooms.  Almost every night, someone would try to come upstairs, but I always chased them back down.  They never once treated me with respect!  I guess that is only for old people.

            We have been in this house for some time now, because Mom says she can’t afford to move.  Recently, Dad moved out and we haven’t seen him since.  Maybe he is really dead now.  Another big change was when Mom and Dad took Miss Patchy downstairs, but never brought her back.  I fear that she is dead, too.  As nasty as she was to me at first, we had grown close.  She was a little like a mother to me, and I actually miss her.  It is very boring here with both Mom gone much of every day and Dad gone, maybe forever.  Mom keeps telling me that I need to go downstairs and make friends, but I think she just doesn’t understand how impossible that is.  I have spoken to Maya a few times.  She lives in Linda’s bedroom and never comes out.  She is very quiet and never says much.  Maybe someday we can be friends.

            Well, enough for now.  Mom played with me this morning and, after all this typing, my paws are aching and I’m tired.  I think it’s nap time.

Strange Days

            I am beginning to feel a little more like playing lately.  It has been hard to know exactly how I feel.  One day, Dad is here, the next day he’s not.  He has now been gone for quite a while, so we are pretty sure he is dead.  Mom keeps saying he will be gone longer, but will be back, and will bring some treats for us.  Ha!  I hardly remember treats.  Mom says they are too expensive here, wherever here is.  Miss Patchy says that we are in a turkey.  Ha!  I think we ate a turkey once!

            Speaking of Miss Patchy, Mom is an apologist for her.  She sleeps most of the time and often gets very cross when I want to play with her.  Sometimes I attack her just to make her show a reaction.  Well, of course she growls and hisses; that’s natural.  But Mom gets upset about it and tells me to stop.  Anyway, Miss Patchy plays with the toys every now and then, which is what she is doing today.  She’s been playing with the green mouse that has a little bell on it.  Mom loves it when Miss Patchy plays with the toys.  All the time, when Miss Patchy is sleeping, or being cross with me, Mom keeps telling me that Miss Patchy is old and we need to be nice to her.  Ha!  She is old, all right!  Sometimes she almost falls over when she is on the bed, and she even needs to have a box by the bed in order to get on it, because she can no longer jump.  A lot of times, Miss Patchy goes into a room or gets up on the bed and just stands there for a minute, looking around, trying to figure out where she is and why she is there.  That’s old!

            I, on the other hand, am young and healthy.  I’m a pretty girl and a good girl, also a smart girl.  Mom tells me this all the time.  Of course, she tells the same things to Miss Patchy, too, but I know it’s true for me.  I always try to do the right things.  However, when I occasionally forget myself, I feel so terrible when Mom tells me that I was wrong.  She never hits me or even calls me a “bad girl,” so it’s not real bad, but maybe I feel even worse because of it.  I want to be good and I want her to love me all the time.  It’s so nice when she lets me come up on her lap and I reach up and hug her around the neck and knead.  Sometimes I kiss her, too.  Mom says she loves it.

            This morning, Mom and I were on the chair in front of the computer.  We were hugging.  Suddenly that skinny little box that Mom talks to sometimes, began to call out.  Mom immediately dumped me on the floor and ran into the kitchen to the box.  She talked to the box and then she held it out to me, saying that it was Daddy.  Right!  Daddy is not a box, and he is much too big to fit inside the box.  The box sounded like Daddy, but you can’t fool me.  It wasn’t him.  It would be nice to see him again and hear his voice for real, but as Mom says:  “I’m not going to hold my breath.”  That seems like a funny thing to say.  How can you hold your breath?  You can’t even see it, let alone get hold of it.  Mom has very funny ideas sometimes.

            Today, as soon as she fed Miss Patchy and me, Mom took the bed apart and put the sheets in that funny, spinning thing in the kitchen.  I hate it when she does that, because the blankets are all lumped up and it’s not easy to find a comfortable spot.  Miss Patchy doesn’t like it, either.  Of course, she mostly lies on the suitcase by the radiator in Mom’s office, unless Mom is in the bed.  Sometimes I will lie on the suitcase with her, because it is nice and warm there.  When Mom watches TV, which she does almost every night, Miss Patchy hogs the place by Mom on the couch.  I just lie on the other couch and glare at Mom.  She tries to get me to come over to her and share the couch with her and Miss Patchy, but I don’t want to share.  I want Mom to come over to my couch!  I am very disappointed when she doesn’t come.  Once in a while she will come to sit with me, but she tells me that the other couch is better for her because it is easier for her to see the TV from it.  Sometimes I think she just loves Miss Patchy more than she loves me.

            Both Miss Patchy and I keep begging for treats.  Sometimes Mom will cook chicken or a hamburger and will offer us pieces of it.  Miss Patchy loves it all, but I just won’t eat it.  I did eat a piece of raw hamburger once, but I don’t like them cooked.  Miss Patchy will eat just about anything, except yesterday Mom cooked what she calls a “weiner.”  She put a small piece of it on the floor for Miss Patchy, but she wouldn’t eat it.  That was a surprise.  It surprised Mom, too.

            Almost every morning I have been asking to go outside on the balcony.  Every morning, it seems colder and colder out there.  Mom always shuts the door when I go out, so I have to call her or scratch on the door to get her attention when I want to come in.  I didn’t bother this morning.  It’s just too cold.  Why does that happen?  Before, it was very warm, and sometimes quite hot, on the balcony.  Now my feet freeze when I go out there on the tiles.  Mom always tries to be close when I go out, because she doesn’t want me to get too cold.  Sometimes she will pick me up and cuddle me tightly, trying to warm up my cold fur.  She really is a good Mom.

            This morning the doorbell rang.  I hate when that happens.  Miss Patchy is lucky, because there is a lot that she no longer can hear, but I think her hearing is better now than it was for a while.  I always hide when I hear it, and Miss Patchy hides, too, when she realizes that it has rung.  Anyway, Mom answered the door and someone handed her one of those things she calls a bucket.  She went into the bathroom and filled it with water and handed it back out the door.  Then the doorbell rang again, and it was the same person.  This time, Mom gave her a small piece of paper.  I’m hoping that they are done ringing the doorbell!

            Well, I don’t feel so much like playing right now, so I think I will take a nap in the wardrobe.  It’s a nice quiet spot, with no breezes.

Regards,

Mina

Life Must Go On

            I haven’t felt much like playing lately, in fact, I’ve been a little depressed.

            Miss Patchy and I have been talking, and we are certain that Dad is dead.  We have not seen him since the really hot weather, and why would he be gone so long if he was still alive?  Mom says he will be home soon, but we think she is just deluding herself.  I guess it’s time to get busy with life and continue on, even though we will miss Dad a lot.  He always brushed Miss Patchy and gave us both treats.  He spent quite a bit of time in the living room, our favorite room.  It is closed most of the time now, because Mom doesn’t spend much time there.  She was going in there just about every night to watch some TV, but now she says that she can’t get the TV to work, so she just opens the door for a while and lets us go in there.  It’s not much fun without either her or Dad.  Mom says that Dad would have been home sooner, but his nephew, the one we like, had to go to the hospital and have surgery.  A likely story.  We know he’s dead.

            I was very upset for a few days.  A while ago, Mom invited me up onto her lap while she was sitting at the computer, as she usually does.  This time, I’m not sure what happened, but I jumped up onto her lap and was just getting around to hugging her when she jumped and yelled at me.  I turned and jumped down onto the floor and she yelled at me some more.  Something about scratching her.  Later that night, she had the bedroom curtains closed over the windows, but something was showing on the curtain.  I could see it in the light coming through from the outside.  I wanted to see what it was, so I jumped up at it and grabbed onto the curtains with my claws so I could climb up.  Mom yelled at me again, and I jumped down.  Twice she called me a bad girl!  Twice!  I was so crushed and hurt!  For a few days I didn’t eat anything that she gave me and I spent all day sleeping on the bed or in the wardrobe.  I wanted to just die and not bother her any more.

            Since that time, Mom has made a point of coming to me every time she comes into the bedroom.  She pets me and tells me what a good girl I am, what a pretty girl I am.  She also says she is sorry for yelling at me, but that I punctured her leg and scratched her tummy, and it surprised her and hurt.  Also, she said I ripped the bottom trim off part of the curtain and now she will have to take it down to repair it.  She says it’s not a bad tear, as the curtain itself is not torn, just the trim came off.  I am glad to hear that, but I still feel a little bad.  I’ve started to eat again, though, and I still go up on her lap, but I am very careful now.  She and I take a nap together almost every day, and the three of us usually sleep together at night.  There is plenty of room on the bed, now that Dad is no longer here.

                        It’s cold these days, and it’s very confusing, because Mom keeps the windows closed most of the time now.  We don’t think it’s all that cold, but Mom does.  She is wearing warmer clothes now and is using the heavy, red blanket now at night.  That is our favorite blanket, because it’s so soft and cuddly.  Mom said she thought that when it got cold, the young humans would stay inside, but she guesses it is not yet cold enough, because they are still out playing and screaming all day and into the night.  However, it’s not as late as before.  They seem to go in around the time it gets dark now.  Mom is grateful for that.  Most nights these days, the bedroom window is closed, so it gets very quiet.

            Mom has started drying the clothes inside.  I think she did that before when it was closed and the windows were all closed.  She says if it gets sunny and warm again for a while, she will move the drying rack outside, but for now it is in the office with wet clothes on it.  Now there is less room to play in there.

            Well, I’m going to take a look for Ribbon and see if he feels like playing.  I’m not sure I do, but I guess I should try.  Even Miss Patchy has been playing a little now.  Mom is very surprised by that, because Miss Patchy is old and sleeps most of the time.  Almost every day, she plays with the green rat with the bell on it. 

            I see Ribbon, but he says he doesn’t feel like playing.  I guess maybe I will take a nap.

Regards,

Mina

Mom Apologized!

            A nap is always so refreshing, so I take one as often as possible.  Mina says I am just lazy, but she is a lot younger and doesn’t seem to need so many naps.

            Well, my anger has cooled off now and I can talk about the incident.  I was so terribly angry with Mom.  I just don’t know how she can be so kind and loving sometimes and just so horribly cruel other times.  I expressed my anger in no uncertain terms.  I would not allow her to touch me and I would not snuggle in bed.  I stayed at the foot of the bed and just lay there with my eyes open, just staring into space and looking hurt.  Well, I was hurt!  My feelings were terribly hurt.  What did she do?  The unthinkable!  When she washed the dishes the other night, she actually closed and latched the kitchen door!  I couldn't get in.  How could she do such a thing?  And it was just before supper time, to add insult to injury.  I called at the door, but she paid no attention.  Later on, when she opened the door again, it was all I could do to eat the supper she put in my bowl.  I’m hoping she won’t do that again, because it is just beyond cruel.  Mom has apologized many times and she promises that it won’t happen again.  We shall see!

            I’m happy to report that Mom and Dad sometimes now talk aloud.  Only sometimes, though.  Mina says the reason I think they aren’t talking is because I am going deaf.  Hmph!  Of all the impertinence of that cheeky, little girl!  I don’t know why Mom brought her into the house anyway.  She says she brought Mina home for me.  Why on earth she would do that is beyond me.  Anyway, sometimes I can hear them talking and can even hear the muezzin once in a while.  It’s nice to hear their voices; I just wish they would keep on talking and not mouth what they are saying.  It’s so rude!  Deaf, indeed!

            Mom now leaves the balcony door open a lot.  I don’t actually go out, but I often sit in the doorway, enjoying the breeze or the little bit of sun that comes there in the afternoon.  I don’t dare go all the way out, with Mom’s penchant for closing doors.  I could get stuck out there!  Mina says it’s fun out there, but I’ll just let her have that kind of fun.  It’s all cold floor, with nothing soft to lie on, so I’ll just stick with the inside where I have lots of options.  She also opens the bedroom window a lot now, but leaves the see-through curtain over the opening.  She says it keeps out birds and flies.

            We just had some very loud rain last night.  There was a lot of what Mom and Dad call thunder and lightning.  It got so loud that it was scary.  Mom gave a little scream at one point, because she said the lightning must have hit something.  It was a very loud crack!  She hasn’t yet been able to find out what, if anything, was hit by the lightning.  I don’t like that kind of rain, but Mina says it is much louder than I think, because I just can’t hear it all that well.

            Mom and Dad got some really good food in a can.  They say it is beef.  That’s fine with me, as it is very delicious.  Even Mina likes it.  Mom says that Mina’s problem is that she likes only red meat, and not chicken.  We had a can of lamb and kidney before and Mina liked that, too.  Mom says she will get a can once in a while.

            Talking about Mom screaming, she growls.  She growls a lot.  They are just short little growls and come on at any time, whether she’s angry or not.  I don’t understand these little growls.  Why does she do it?  Sometimes there will be a lot of them all at once, and sometimes they are very loud.  Often, she holds her stomach after growling.  I don’t know what her stomach has to do with anything.  Maybe her mind is going and in her confused state she thinks there is something to growl at.  Oh well, just one more human mystery to not understand.

            Well, all this thinking has made me very tired, so I’m going to have to take a nap.  Maybe in a dream the answer to why Mom growls will come to me.

Yours,

Apache

Mom's Home!

            What a nice nap!  It’s warm and cozy here, and Mina and I snuggle under our comforter on our wonderful, comfortable mattress.

            It was so great to see Mom and Dad.  They came home early in the morning and fed us right away.  Then we all took a long nap.  We were so happy!  Mom came home with a lot of suitcases, and they were full of things that she brought from away.  One of the things she brought home was treats!  Oh, we haven’t had any treats for ever so long.  They are so delicious!  That’s our Mom!  Always thinking of us, as is only right.  Mom had some familiar smells on her, but also some very unfamiliar ones, too.  I smelled other felines, but none that I have ever met.  I also smelled Mom’s daughter and grandson.  They weren’t in the suitcases, though.  I guess maybe they wouldn’t fit.  It would be nice if they were here, but not their felines.  That would be too much. 

            There were all kinds of other smells, too, some that made me sneeze, Mina, too.  Mom brought more of that coffee stuff that she likes to have every morning.  I don’t know why she likes it, as it smells bad to me.  There were no meat smells, so I didn’t spend much time sniffing her suitcases.  I just want to cuddle and snuggle and let her know how much we missed her.  Sometimes we snuggle with Dad in the living room.  That’s always nice, because we get to lie on the couches that they bought.  When the couches came to the house, we thought that Mom and Dad bought them for us, but we aren’t allowed in the living room unless they are in there.  We have to lie on blankets on the couches, which is not bad.  I don’t especially like the feel of the material on the couches anyway.  Dad watches television a lot, so I get to cuddle up next to him, lying on the nice soft blanket.  It is so warm and nice.  Every time he gets up, I move over to the warm spot he has left.  It’s funny, but he never appreciates this.  Mina always just lies on the other couch and glares at us.

            Ever since Mom got back, she has been sleeping a lot.  She said something about jet lag.  I don’t know what it is, but if it makes her snuggle with me in the bed, there is a lot to be said for it.  Again, she mentioned flying.  What can I do to disabuse her of this delusion?  She has no wings, so she cannot fly.  Why can’t she see that?  She said that Mina and I flew, too, some time ago, but we have no wings either.  I guess if that’s the only thing wrong with Mom (and Dad, too), I can accept it.  It kind of bothers me, though.  Mina just says that she wishes she could fly, so that maybe she could catch one of those birds that are constantly flying around.  She can catch the flies, because they come into the house through the open windows, but the birds never do.  Mom keeps telling Mina that the birds are about as big as she is and that she might have trouble catching one, no matter what.  Mom says that they are called pigeons, doves, and magpies.  Hmmmm!  Mom loves to eat pie, but what kind of a pie is a magpie?

            Life is almost back to normal now, except that Dad keeps talking about moving to a stand bull.  What is that?  Now we are going to live in a bull?  A turkey wasn’t enough?  I will never understand these things, so I might as well go back to sleep and have a nice nap.

Yours,

Apache

Where is Mom?

            I have been napping a lot now.  It helps with the loneliness.  I’m just tired all the time, and now I’m cold, too.

            One day, Mom brought out the suitcases.  That is always a bad sign.  She put one suitcase inside another one, and then brought out a small one, too.  She put some clothes in them and a few other things that she said she was not going to bring back.  It was very strange, why two suitcases in one?  She said that she was taking one back to the person who owned it.  Why was it here if someone else owned it?  I sometimes have trouble understanding the human process.

            Anyway, Mom and Dad left the house one evening with the suitcases and Mom’s large purse.  It was dark already, and they fed us before they left.  I don’t know where they went, but they didn’t come back.  Some strange woman wearing a scarf came into the house and gave us food.  Is she Dad's mother?  Mina was scared and hid, but I’m just too tired to hide anymore.  I hide only from the vacuum cleaner because it is loud.  It is cold now, and the heat does not come on.  Mina and I snuggle under the comforter on the bed.  Thank goodness for the comfortable mattress and the nice, warm comforter they bought us.  We would freeze without them.  It is very quiet in the house.  Where are they?

            A couple of days later, Dad came home, but Mom was not with him.  Where is Mom?  I fear that she is dead, or she would have come back.  She would not leave us if she were alive.  Oh, how we miss Mom.  At least we have Dad.  That is enough for Mina, but to me Dad is someone new in my life.  I have lived with Mom for a very long time, long before Dad came into the picture.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Dad, but I need Mom!  I wonder what they have done with her.  She has been gone for a long time.

            Dad is very good to us.  He feeds us and he cleans the litter box.  He plays with Mina, and he snuggles with me in the living room.  What more could we ask?  I want Mom.  We both miss her so much.

            A few days later, Dad left again, with that woman coming in to feed us.  Now where is Dad?  Why did he leave us again?  What are we going to do?  Maybe Dad is dead, too!  It is cold again, quiet, and lonely.  Food is definitely okay, but we need Mom and Dad.  I am shivering now with cold and fear.

            Maybe a good, long nap will help me to feel better.  Maybe Mina will cuddle up and help to keep me warm.

Yours,

Apache

Why Must I Learn Something New?

            Lately, it has been very hard to get up from my naps.  I would rather just nap all the time and forget about anything else but eating.

            However, instead of being allowed to do that, I now have to learn something new.  Mom is insisting that I learn to read lips.  I have no idea why, but she keeps moving her lips just the way she does when she talks, but no sound comes out.  It’s very frustrating, even though I am beginning to learn some of the things she is saying.  I have learned to read Mom’s lips when she says:  “Patchy, I love you.”  That’s nice to know, but I would love to hear her voice again.  She just refuses to make sounds, though.  She is even cruel enough that she no longer calls me for supper, so I have to be vigilant about the time, or I might miss my meal.  Sometimes I can hear her talk, but very softly; she must forget that she is teaching me to read lips.  For some reason, Dad has joined in this cruel behavior, as well.  I don’t even think that Mom and Dad make sounds to each other anymore, either.  I see them moving their lips to each other, but no sound.  When I talk, Mom always puts her finger to her lips, telling me to be quiet or to talk more softly.  I just don’t understand this whole thing.  Why are they doing this to me?  It’s funny, but Mina says she hears them.  I think she is just lying to me.  How could she hear them and I cannot?

            They also sneak up on me all the time.  Whenever I have my back turned, I will turn around and there is one of them coming toward me.  It makes me jump because I am so startled.  Sometimes, I feel the air move when they are passing by, and it really bothers me that they are sneaking up on me.  Why are they doing this?  Don’t they want me to know that they are there?  Are they trying to avoid me?  So many questions, but no answers.

            At least Mom has been cooking some good food lately.  The last batch had what Mina said Dad calls Hamsi in it.  It is very obviously fish and it tasted very good mixed with the chicken, livers, and hearts.  Mom is a great cook when she wants to be.  Dad cooked some of the Hamsi for himself, too, because I could smell it very strongly.  Mina told me that Mom said it made the whole house smell for days and she hated it.  I smelled it, too, but I thought it smelled very good and I was sorry when it was gone.  Mom didn’t eat any.  Some people just have no taste.  She doesn’t eat livers or hearts, either.  Very strange!  How does Mina know what they are saying?  Can she already read lips?

            Mom has started something new with me.  She hates it when I scratch the rug in the bedroom and it always wakes her up.  I thought it would be a good way to get her to wake up and feed me my breakfast early.  I guess I was wrong (for the first time ever).  Mom now gets up and chases me into the small bedroom and shuts the door.  I was pretty mad about it this morning, and left her a little present on the floor.  She noticed it right away when she opened the door to let me out for breakfast.  I saw her wrinkle her nose.  Well, she fed us and then cleaned up the mess.  She flushed what she could pick up, then used a wet paper towel, and then mopped with the smelly floor cleaner.  When she put the mop away, she stepped on our water dish and flipped it over, getting a lot of water in her slipper and all over the floor.  I laughed a lot.  That should teach her to lock me up!  I hope she isn’t thinking of doing it again.

            Dad has gone away again.  I don’t know when he’ll be back, as they never tell me anything anymore.  I feel so hurt and unloved now that they are not talking to me.  Will it ever end?

            It is time for a nap now.  Writing makes me really, really tired, as does thinking about my problems, so I will say goodbye for now.

Yours,

Apache

Mom is Getting Smarter

            Ribbon is so much fun!  We play together so often that I have to take Ribbon into the bathroom so Mom will give him a shower.  I like Ribbon to be clean, like me.

            Well, Mom is finally starting to realize the beauty of litter, but she’s not quite there yet.  Whenever she needs to use the bathroom, she always sits on the white thing she calls a toilet.  I don’t see the point in it, but she always uses it.  Dad sometimes uses it, but sometimes he uses the place that Mom calls the Squatter.  Anyway, these days, when Mom sits on the white thing, she scratches with her foot in the litter at the same time.  Of course, she hasn’t learned to use the box yet and just scratches at the litter that is on the floor by the toilet, but she’s learning, and that’s always encouraging.  One day, maybe she will actually use the box, like she did way back in the summer when we lived one day at a little house.  She will be a little big for the box, though, so maybe she will get a bigger one so that all four of us can use it.  I’m not sure that Dad will ever learn, though.  He just doesn’t seem to get it.

            Mom also recognizes when the litter box has to be cleaned – not as soon as Miss Patchy and I know it, though.  She seems to smell when it is dirty, plus she sees that Miss Patchy and I refuse to use it after a while.  I remember when we had no electricity for a while, it was very cold and Miss Patchy and I had to go a lot.  Mom cleaned it in the dark one day, with the help of a flashlight.  She complained that it was much too wet and that she had just cleaned it, but we couldn’t help it.  It was the cold that did it.

            It’s amazing what humans can learn if you have patience and show them enough times how to do things.  For instance, I have trained Mom to give Ribbon a shower when he is in the bathroom.  I am also trying to train her to get up during the night and play with me.  However, she seems to be missing the point.  I bang the wardrobe doors together and, when she doesn’t respond, I bang even louder.  She finally gets up, but instead of playing with me, she goes into the living room and sleeps on the couch.  It is no use banging the doors anymore, because Dad never responds.  Anyway, last night I tried, and Mom got up and went into the living room.  However, this time I scratched on the living room door and meowed, louder and louder, until she finally came out.  Unfortunately, she had a trick up her sleeve and she opened all the wardrobe doors.  Well, I shut one of them and began to bang it.  She got up and used her final trick.  She put her purse in the way of the double doors, so I couldn’t close either one of them and I couldn’t bang them, either.  Rats!  I’ll have to see what else I can do. 

            Back in the house called Phoenix, there was a wonderful, big chain hanging down the wall in Mom and Dad’s bedroom, and I used to pull on it and let it go back against the wall.  That really bothered Mom and Dad, and they would get up and shut me out of the bedroom.  That made me mad!  However, I kept trying, hoping that they would get the idea and come play with me.  I thought that the wardrobe doors would be a great substitute for the chain, but no luck.  Mom says that I need to be up more during the day, playing, but that just doesn’t feel right to me.

            Well, I will continue with my training efforts and hope to see some results before long.  I am working so hard at it, that it would be a shame if nothing ever came of it.  Miss Patchy says to just forget about it and go to sleep, because humans are untrainable.  I refuse to give up!

            I am feeling as though I need to play, and I see Ribbon on the hall floor, getting cold.  Once I have finished playing, I will start to keep track of my training attempts and see how long it takes.

Regards,

Mina

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