No boundaries

I've had complaints about the length of time I've left the dead rodent up on Ding DIng's blat. Tonight I will remedy that. Unfortunately I haven't been taking pictures of the Dingers lately. That doesn't mean she hasn't been busy--in fact she's been demonstrating new levels of fearlessness (or stupidity, depending on how you look at it). I just don't have photo documentation. Several weeks ago I saw DIng Ding stalking a raccoon across the neighbor's lawn. It was like she was herding it. More recently both Roger and I saw her tailing a possum. She lived to tell about both adventures, with no scars as far as I can seel--but I worry. She has no sense of her place in the universe. Since I don't have a new picture of her I am adding one from a previous visit to her island getaway.

Deadly Ding Ding

The rodent pictured here died this fall. We don't know that Dingers was the assassin, but we are suspicious!

3,000 miles apart, cat friends love shopping bags

Although they are separated by the width of the continent and almost a decade in age, Ding Ding and Lola prove in these pictures that cats will be cats--wherever they live, and however old they are.

Special places

Ding Ding enjoys placing herself artistically.

Where does Ding Ding go?

We have often wondered where Dingers goes when she is outside. Rog wanted to put a catcam on her, but we are both technologically lazy and inept, so that's not likely to happen. There was an article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer a few weeks ago about a couple who actually did that. They set the camera to take photos every few minutes. They found out the cat roamed much farther than they had imagined, and that it slept a lot. No surprises there. A prolonged period of snow last month gave me an opportunity to see where our cat actually does go.

Friends of Ding Ding

Dingers doesn't have a Facebook page, not is she on Catster--but that doesn't mean she doesn't have friends. She is now friends with Hercules, a carrot-loving Papillon who lives in Pennsylvania; Marlin the cat, who lives in Delaware; and Lola, who gave Dingers some very delicious freeze-dried salmon treats for Christmas. Although Lola loves the salmon treats very much, and I think she would probably have preferred to eat them herself. Lola lives in Boston, and she will soon have to share her apartment with a new baby.

Ding Ding Meets Her Match

In our ongoing effort to teach Ding Ding some basic manners we have come to depend upon this squirt bottle. We first tried the spray bottle we use for ironing, but it produces a mist. The mist didn't faze her. This bottle produces a much stronger stream of water, and she doesn't like it at all. All I have to do is pick it up, and she either doesn't jump up or if she's already up, she gets down. I guess this is progress--she knows she shouldn't be on the counters, and we have a way to enforce our wishes. But I'm pretty sure if we're not here she wouldn't hesitate to roam where ever she wanted.