Sunday Morning... Nice and sunny

Another glorious day...... lots of sun, a nice breeze, temperatures should be up in the 80s. What a great place to live! (Note to self: remember that line when it rains.)

I can always tell when summer has begun here-- my husband and I start to do the "thermostat dance." He turns the air conditioning down (colder) and I tip-toe to the thermostat and turn it up (warmer). Depending on the shoes I'm wearing, sometimes he hears me in the hallway on my way to the thermostat (which is right outside his computer room) and sometimes I can get there and tweak the thermostat quickly and get away before he turns around. Yesterday, he told me I tweaked it up to at least 700 degrees. (Note to self: remember to take off sandals before walking towards the thermostat.... the slip-slap of summer sandals can wake the dead.)

Rusty (oldest cat) continues to sleep out on the deck in the backyard. He alternates his choice of bedding between the rattan sofa and the lawn chair on the deck, and the chaise lounge on the lawn. Rusty doesn't mind being alone out there.... he's always been sort of a loner, and I think he was disappointed in us when we added two other cats and a dog to his household.

AngelBoy (middle cat... my fluffy blue-eyed prissy cat) slept on the screen-porch last night. He started the night on his pillow in the laundry room but before I got myself ready for bed, he was banging his paw on the door and he wanted out of there. As soon as I let him out of the laundry room, he jumped through the open breakfast room window and let himself into the screen-porch. It was nice and warm outside last night, so I put his food and water dish out there and shut the window. AngelBoy certainly has his choice of sleeping spots on the porch, since all the wicker furniture is out there. There are also two cardboard boxes, which I can't take away because AngelBoy likes to jump into them and "hide". Silly cat, he thinks I can't see him when he gets into those boxes. Oh well... the cardboard boxes have become part of the decor.

ShadowBaby (youngest cat) slept in his usual spot last night... my side of the bed. Then at 5:30 this morning, he curled up on my pillow and started playing with my hair and trying to wake me up. (His signal to me that he wants to go out on the screen-porch and start his day.) So that's where I put him, along with fresh food & water for him & AngelBoy, and I went back to sleep. Didn't wake up till 8:30.

Don't know why I got started typing all of this about the cats. Sometimes I sit at this lap-top and just type out whatever I'm thinking. Right now, AngelBoy is sleeping not too far away from where I'm sitting. He's upside-down, fluffy paws curled up on his chest, and every minute or so, he opens his kitty-blue eyes to make sure I'm here.

I think one can judge the "atmosphere" of a home by the mannerisms of the pets who live there. In one of the cat books I read recently ("The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats") the author (Jeffrey M. Masson) wrote that a cat who is comfortable enough to sleep upside-down and expose the most vulnerable part of its body is a cat who truly feels safe.

When I was growing up, I made a promise to myself that if I had children, I would make sure they always felt safe and felt loved. Well, I never had children, but I've always had cats and dogs, which became my "children." I've made sure my four-legged kids always feel safe, and I do believe they know that I love them.

All is perfect in this little corner of the world on this beautiful sunny morning.