Hope Springs Eternal

 I know this will come as a shock to our friends but Kismet needs to lose weight.  So we've cut back on the rations and we (I) am taking her for walks.  Believe it or not, she is cooperating, although at her own pace (walk 5 steps, stop, lay down, look around, get up, walk 5 steps, etc.)  Tonight Karnack - the more athletic one - jumped over the wall on the Back 40 and joined us - I think out of curiosity more than anything else.

Here's Karnak and my improvised cat exercise gym.  That's a 150-year-old piece of furniture there.  My family will recognize it as the piece that stood in our formal living room for as long ago as we can  remember.

Karnack "enjoys" the wildlife.  Those are Crimson (Blue-Cheeked) Rosellas (parrots) - a pair - who come every morning to feed.  I think they have, in Karnacks' mind, replaced the Mourning Dove pair who hung around our backyard in Alexandria.

She doesn't seem interested in hunting here and I don't blame her (although she does alert me to spiders).  The birds are as big - or bigger - than she is.  I would not recommend tangling with a Cockatoo or a Magpie (bigger than crows).

 So, the three of us walk around the paved inner court of our compound, pausing to smell the freshly cut shrubs, look in the storm drains for opossums, and just walk through dry leaves so we can hear them rustle.  I occasionally hear a fox "bark" which is more like a yelp.  And that's why the kitties have to be in before we go to bed, because a fox - which are considered vermin here (along with rabbits) - will grab them in a second.  Here, Kismet and Karnack are not at the top of the food chain.  They just don't realize it, so we have to watch out for them.

Kismet doesn't seem that embarrassed by the harness but then again I usually do this in the morning and in the evening when it's dark.  She seems to like it because her tail is always swishing back and forth and she looks around at everything and smells things a lot.  I'm the one that looks silly.  I know, my neighbors have told me so.

We're glad we went to the trouble and expense of getting them out here because they really do add to the quality of life and they seem happy to be with us.  She still sleeps with us - in fact every night I go to sleep constricted by sleeping cats. Now if I can just break Kismet of the 3:30 AM wakeup call for kibble, we'll be alright.

A Boy and His Cat