Living the Dream

Since the weather has turned warmer, we have started letting our cat, Cleo, outside in the backyard. Until this point, she has been an indoor-only feline. She has no claws on her front feet (it was either the claws or the cat that had to go; I was tired of her shredding my couch) but the ones on her back feet are intact. She was very cautious at first - she didn't like the feel of grass between her toes, she moved more slowly than an old woman, and she didn't stray far from the porch.

Now, she hollers at me in the afternoon to let her out where she roams all over the yard, snacks on blades of grass, pounces on low-flying insects, and has made it up two trees! In these photos, Cleo is in the low branches of the apple tree. She was extremely proud of herself for being such an accomplished outdoor cat!

The first tree she climbed was the pine tree - and not of her own will. She was out roaming when Darwin decided to play a game of tag. Cleo didn't stick around long enough to see if she was going to get eaten or tagged. She made it up 8 feet into the lowest branch on adreneline and back claws, where she remained until Chadwick scaled up the tree to rescue her. Needless to say, we don't let the two of them out in the yard together anymore.