So I kinda tore a whole in the screen door and made my own cat door so that’s I could escape to the outside world when the big wooden door is open. Is that really a bad thing?

*sigh* Mom seems to thinks so.

The worst part is that after all that trouble I didn’t even get outside. See, I misjudged the size of the whole I needed and I, um, kinda got stuck? My furs got tangled up in the torn part of the screen and I couldn’t get out or in. So I had to call Mom to help me out. Mom kindly helped me gets unstuck and then gave me THE LOOK and my nose got bopped. I then got a lecture and am now confined to the bedroom where the window is ALWAYS closed and there is no screen door to tear through.

Yes, I know staying in the house is good and all, but I just wanted to go out for a little bit. There are so many things to hunt out there that it just teases me.

Mom’s frowning now ’cause she’s gotta fix the door. So now I suspects the wooden door will be staying shut all the time. Which means now I can’t sit at the screen door and fill the fresh air on my whiskers and watch the outside world from the safety of the screen door.

You know, in hindsight, trying to make my own kitty-door in the screen door wasn’t such a bright idea after all.

Mom came home this afternoon kinda grouchy and made lunch, but I didn’t eat anything she gave me because I was hunting. Another one of those stink bugs made it into the house today and I was carefully tracking him through the living room when I spied something green and moving on the living room curtains:

This is the third time I’ve a praying mantis on our curtains!! I immediately gave up the stink bug for this guy, which Mom didn’t like much ’cause she don’t like me climbing curtains. She eventually knocked him off for me to keep me from climbing. I’ve found all kinds of yummy things to eat on the curtains. From lizards and praying mantis to spiders and moths – it’s a smorgasbord! It’s like a garden or something there, you can always find something healthy and yummy to snack on there. I’m gonna have ta start just doing my…. “green shopping” by checking the curtains every day for something green and yummy to eats.

Well, it’s not a good one for Mom, but I think it’s kinda cool.

You see, when Mom was a little kid (wow that must have been a looooong time ago! ) there was a basement in this old house. Well, since it’s so small and was used to store preserves and wine back in the day when not even Grandma was born, maybe it’s more of a cellar…? Buts anyway, there was a basement at one point and Mom used to like playing down there. Mom’s Great-Grandma would store preserves down there and other stuff, but one day she fell and hurt her hip while picking fruit off the membrillo trees, and she couldn’t walk very well after that and had to use a walker to gets around. She was stubborn like my Mom is (maybe more?) and refused to let people do things for her just ’cause she didn’t have the same mobility she used to though!

The end result? Since she lived on her own and refused to have someone living with her and taking care of her, the basement was sealed so that she wouldn’t need to go down there to clean or store stuff anymore and there’d be one less risk for her.

Flash forward like twenty years and Mom and I are living here now and there’s a bit of a mouse problem. I’ve been trying to catch ‘em all but it’s tough work for one kitty. Especially when Mom gets mad at me for hopping on the stove or counter and stuff. Some of the tile is cracking and needs to be replaced and one of spots happens to be where the door in the floor (that sounds funny) to the basement is. The tile is that cheap kind that is thin and comes in a roll that is easy to lay, so Mom isn’t surprised it needs replacing. It’s one of many things she’s gonna get around to eventually. Mom spilled the pan of water she had used to clean rice in and it spread all over the floor, including to where the new cracks are. Before she could mops it up, the water by the new cracks just soaked into the floor like it was dry ground outside.

We were suspicious, very suspicious. I thought I founds a new adventure, Mom thought she smelled something funny. We were both rights! Mom mopped up the rest of the water then started feeling around on the floor with this funny knife that has a switch and I sometimes see her use to cut boxes with. I couldn’t figure out why was slicing a square into our floor until all of a sudden did something funny and up comes the floor!

Apparently the basement wasn’t filled in likes we were all told and Mom’s great aunt and great uncle just sorta sealed the door down. Mom sees what you lazy humans did there! Some of the door had cracked from too much weight being on it and broken away, which is how the water fell down into the basement. And when Mom and I looked down we saw a few preserve jars that had, had stuff in ‘em and been knocked down, lots of cobwebs and dust, and some mice. I HAZ FOUNDS YOU, YOU MICEZ!!!!

There are some mold spots too, but they’re small Mom is going to go down there tomorrow in the daylight and clean like crazy so that she doesn’t have to shell out money she don’t have for a basement dehumidifier to combat mold in the future.

Mom is ticked though. Her Great Aunt and Uncle said it was filled in proper but it never was and so a table with appliances has been standing partly on that spot and people have sat in chairs over that spot for all these years putting weight there and it could have givens out any time. She’s especially mad ’cause if it had happened while her Great Grandmother was still alive, well, she would have been really hurt. And Mom is already not very happy with them these past couple of years ’cause of many things. Methinks I don’t wanna be around when Mom talks to ‘em about this.

I’m excited though ’cause this means a new room to explore for me and better hunting grounds while inside the house!!

But! That’s not why I’m posting this entry. You see, while we were there some squirrels were there running around. And, as you may remembers, the other house has a squirrel problem. I thinks this is the real reason Mom let the Old Man and Grandma take Shizuku back to the other house, he likes hunting squirrels too and there really aren’t any at our new home. But, that’s not what’s important.

What’s important is that these squirrels had the nerve to play on the lawn in plain sight of me, like I wouldn’t even hunt them let alones catch them. That made me very, very mad. How dares they insult my hunting skillz!

So I gave chase, I stalked them all over the property, chased ‘em up trees, and climbed under piled timber and vehicles too. And I never caught ‘em. Then, Grandma had enough and opened the door to let her doggy, Big Momma, out and off she shot.

It didn’t even take ten minutes before she had caught a squirrel and killed it. Then she brought it over to Grandma and Mom and they were so very proud of her. Shizuku, for the record, never joined in the hunt. He stayed at Mom’s feet and only growled and barked when the squirrel-hunt got too close to Mom for his liking.

I’m glad Big Momma caught one of those annoying, insulting, trouble-making nut munchers, but I’m also mad too. I couldn’t catch one! I’ve always been a great huntress, but I failed so badly, and in front of Mom too. I blame this on my inability to gets out and hunts more.

Still though, it was fun visiting Grandma, and even Shizuku and Big Momma too.

I thinks she just needs to get outdoors more. I know that’s how I’m getting rids of the belly fat I gots over the winter.

Since I gets outside daily now and for longer periods of time I gets to eat more greens. Go greens! It’s so nice to have a green yard again.

I also get to do hunting now, which is good exercise, because lizards are fast, and you have to be light on your feet to get them birdies. No sign of birdzilla around here either so it’s birdie season! I tried to get Mom to hunt with me and told her it’s good exercise but she just laughs and pets me, then sends me on my way and watches me at it. Mom doesn’t seem to understand that it is not a spectator sport.

And of course, climbing and stretching is very helpful too. Strengthens your legs and gets the blood flowing. Plus it gives you a chance to sharpen your claws too. Great fun!

This is the way to exercise Mom, not those funny things you do called “crunches”. At least she’s got the running and walking part right. Ah, I’ll teach her how to exercise right someday.

See, I thought I was hungry so I went hunting in the field and found me a mouse. But I wasn’t as hungry as I thoughts I was so I left it to the side in case I wanted to come back for it. Though I figures the little insects would get it first too be honest. Mouse just doesn’t taste as good when it’s leftovers. Like cold chicken from the fridge. Not as yummy.

Well, since Mom found it she’s been making funny faces at me and frowning a lot. She keeps it up and she’ll need to invest in that smelly white stuff humans call “wrinkle cream” before she’s actually, you know, an old human.

Still don’t get why she’s upset though. I should be upset really. She threw away my leftovers without even asking me if I still wanted them. How ruuude!

So what did I catch you ask? I gives you some hints:

• It’s a rodent
• They dig holes in the ground
• Humans who get sent on all the errands are sometimes called the name of this rodent

Do you know what it is yet?

It’s a gopher! Or at least it was a gopher. They taste very yummy and are very filling. Probably not the best thing to eat though if you’re wanting to lose belly fat though.

I think my eyes were bigger than my tummy though because I couldn’t finish eating him. Oh well, leftovers are nice too.

Birdzilla is back.

I saw him in the canal and just watched, waiting for him to come and snatch me up like the evil bird he is. Mom saw him and had to take pictures! She made sure not to get too close so not to startle him and make him fly away. Silly Mom, you should have scared him off! It started raining so the humans picked up the barbecue stuff and we went in. I was glad because that mean Birdzilla couldn’t get me today.

Mom says this is a Great Blue Heron and that it’s probably migrating to this place called Bosque del Apache to nest for the winter. Although, she admitted that he could decide to stay in the area too. He’s done that before! Last winter he stuck around here all the time and gave me such nasty looks for hunting birdies. Scarry!

Today I decided it was way past time to put Denali in her place. Instead of bringing icky buggies, snakes, and mice to Mommy I brought her something that was much more worthy of my pretty Mommy. I caught her a pretty black butterfly!

It was hard not to tear him up too badly. Even though I was carefully he still lost some parts. But look how pretty he stayed! Mommy thought he was pretty to, when she saw me bringing it to her she ran and got her camera to take picture of it. She was so proud! Mommy even said so, she said her “pretty kitty caught such a pretty butterfly”. Denali was sooo jealous! She started dancing at Mommy’s feet trying to take it, but I bopped her on the head and put her in her place. That butterfly is Mommy’s gift, not Denali’s!

Mommy has been looking at the prices of a bunch of different kinds of digital camcorders but she hasn’t found one she likes. So unfortunately you don’t get to see Denali throwing a hissy fit. Well, Mommy did record part of it with her digital camera, but it doesn’t capture sound so it’s not as funny.

I wonder if Mommy is going to put it one of those clear stones with the colored bottoms that hold down her papers. They’re kinda heavy so they’re called “weights for paper” or something like that. I hope she likes it enough to keep it.

She catches ‘em sometimes too. They don’t stop though. They like messing with her head. But it’s fun to mess with dogs so I can’t blame ‘em. I just think it’d be better to mess with Shizuku. Big Mama’s kinda crazy. I mean, she likes hunting skunks.

As much as I’d like to catch one, and really teach those punks what’s what, they’re too fast for me. And they’re kind scary too. I had one chase after me once and the Old Man had to throw some rocks to get it to leave me alone. It almost caught my purty tail! Damn rabid nut-eaters!

I pride myself as a huntress, but my biggest catch was a gopher and only a medium sized one at that. Birds, lizards, toads, mice – those are my usual fair. Today though I outdid myself.

Yes, I got me one of them nut-eaters! It was a lot of work too and, unfortunately, I had to have Grandma and Mom help me too. But in the end, I caught him! I had so much fun playing with him too. I batted him around for a bit, but then he got away under teh bushes. I thought I lost him and kinda started to cry. Grandma thought I was hurt and came to see what was wrong. In the end it took her and Mom working together to flush him out to my direction. But as you can see, I got him!

I think I need some sales training though because in the end I didn’t get to keep him. He made funny squeak-chirps for help and got some bigger squirrels interested in what was going on. Big Mama had a field day chasing those guys though. I thought Mom was gonna give the squirrel to Big Mama after all my hard work. She didn’t. Then, since he was squeaking and Shizu really loves to chew on things that squeak, I thought he was gonna get it. I felt I deserved him, he was a lot of hard work after all. I tried to sell Mom on the idea but she wasn’t buying.

I’d make a lousy car salescat.

In the end, Mom’s specimen collection got a new addition. Mom didn’t want to let him go, ’cause they’ve been trying to exterminate those nut-munchers, but she didn’t want me to eat him either. I think she was afraid I’d get hurt after he started growling and tried to eat my face off. I could have totally taken him though! Mom worries too much. I swear, I should have never run to her that time a gopher bit my paw. She treats me like a baby now!

So now I still don’t know what squirrels taste like. Plus Mom won’t let me back outside in case those rabid nut-munchers are still pissy. But! I got Greenies when I got inside and a can of my favorite kitty food all to myself so I can’t get too upset.