"You won't get that on the other side of the fence!"

AngelBoy was on the other side of the fence today in our neighbor V's backyard. I had put bricks in front of the hole in that fence just a couple of weeks ago, when he squeezed himself through it to see what was on the other side. Somehow, something, between then and now, had managed to gnaw its way through the fence-- not only one new hole, but two. And there went AngelBoy, squeezing himself through the hole again and finding himself in V's yard.

Thankfully, I noticed him missing very quickly this time, and went over to V's yard to look for him. And there was my blue-eyed cat, sniffing around in V's flowerbeds. No one was home at V's, so I let myself into her yard and told her about it later. We don't know what's been chewing at the bottom of the fence. A raccoon? Possum? Her dog?

So now there are three holes in the fence that's between our yards..... and I've put large bricks in front of all three holes. Of course, now I'm afraid to let AngelBoy out in the yard, because if there's another hole out there, he's sure to find it. And if he gets into V's yard and her big dog is out there, he may not take too kindly to a blue-eyed fluffy prissy cat sniffing around in his yard. Plus, V told me that there's a big hole between her yard and the yard behind hers, and if AngelBoy finds that hole, he'll be on the next street instead of in the next yard. When I told that to my husband, I know that he was thinking he'd like to draw AngelBoy a map so he could find his way more easily to the next street. But he didn't say that out loud.

I know that AngelBoy is a problem...... he's such a high-maintenance cat, very prissy, very picky, very cat-like..... so different from ShadowBaby and Mickey Kitty, who act more like puppies than cats. AngelBoy's attitude makes him hard to love, but he's my cat and I'm responsible for his little blue-eyed life, and I don't want to find him run over by a car in the street, which is what would happen if he got out into the road. There isn't a street-smart bone in his fluffy, prissy body.

So there I was in V's yard today, looking at AngelBoy at the other end of the yard under V's nandina bushes. Those blue eyes of his just stared at me as I told him "Do you like being on this side of the fence more than you like being on your own side of the fence? Do you think you're going to get tiny cut-up pieces of oranges and melon on this side of the fence? Do you think you're going to get brushed every day on this side of the fence?" He just looked at me. I walked over to that cat and picked him up and brought him into our screen-porch, and then I went out in the yard and started carrying bricks to cover up the new holes in the fence. I haven't let AngelBoy out into the yard since, and I don't know if I will let him out tomorrow. Or the next day, or the next.......