Bernard Scott

Before I moved, the girlies used to get in the garage all the time and make me crazy. No matter how careful I was, they were too quick for me most of the time. It's not easy to catch kittens who don't want to be caught. One night I was ready to cry because I didn't know where Sophie was. Then, as I stood up after looking under the car for the zillionth time, there she was, in the car, looking out the driver's window at me. The sunroof had been left open. It went on and on, time after time, and then I moved here. I was really worried because if they got out the front door or the patio door, they'd be outside. As it turned out, I could go in and out at will, and they never showed any interest in going outside. When someone rang the bell, they would go running to the door but stand back. How fortunate was I!!

Then last week here came Bernard Scott, a gray and white stray who's been hanging out on my deck in the evenings, peering in the door and making Sophie crazy. He jumped up on a neighbor's window because one of her cats was sitting there and ripped her screen, and he doesn't seem particularly pleasant. Sophie doesn't care for him either.

I figure that's why Sophie went flying out the front door when I came back in from getting the mail. Imagine my surprise. If she hadn't taken a second when she got to the walk to decide if it was really something she wanted to do, I wouldn't have been able to grab her tail and hold on until I could pick her up and bring her back in. Only to find Molly poised to make her escape, too, but she wasn't successful.

My days of lollygagging in and out of doors are over. At least when they're at the patio door with Sophie making pathetic little spitting noises at Bernard Scott, it gives me a chance to go out the front door and around the building to put food out for him. Yeah, I know, he's never going to go away, but it's been so rainy and cold . . . .