This is my life

It's been a good weekend, all told.

Let's see - Friday I brought my cat out to Cambridge with me, and he encountered Cowboy, M's roommate, for the first time. The Pooka does NOT like Cowboy, that I can tell you. I don't know why, but he really, really doesn't. It started out okay - but then tough, rodeo-riding Cowboy who ropes bulls for fun was jumping on top of furniture, afraid of the attacking Vampire cat. Once we told him Pooka had no front claws, things calmed down, but every time he walks past Pooka, the cat hisses at him. I have no idea what that's about. I had figured that Cowboy would either be at a rodeo or at his girlfriends for the weekend ( I think I've seen him twice all summer), or I wouldn't have brought Pooka out. He did leave for his girlfriend's yesterday, so things are a bit calmer, now.

Pooka around the dogs is kinda funny, actually - things are definitely getting better there, day by day. Pooka hisses every time he walks past them, and they just ignore him. Yesterday Havoc was sound asleep on the porch, and Pooka hissed at him as he walked past the dog's hind legs to get to me. Definitely no threat there - Havoc was asleep after all - so it seems like Pooka's at the point where he's just hissing on principle.

Anyway, yesterday morning we headed up to St. Jacob's, hoping to hit the market. We left a little late - around 10:30 - and we realized that was a mistake as we approached the turnoff from the 86. The traffic was backed up down the highway, so we decided not to spend an hour just trying to get to the market, and figure'd we'd hit St. Jacob's proper instead. The traffic there was just as bad, so we headed home. Did a little appliance and furniture shopping on the way (found a kitchen table that I really like, and might be a possibility), but didn't actually buy anything.

Today was spent sipping daiquiris in the sunshine, doing nothing more energetic than tracking down free-ranging animals. *g* Pooka's starting to like the place, I think - he seems to think that as long as he's standing on the concrete around the house, he isn't actually outside. He keeps doing a circuit - from the french doors, across the porch, across the concrete behind the garden, up the main steps, in the door, over the half-door separating the porch from the house (it's one of those doors with two sections, and only the bottom is closed) and then through the house to the french doors again. He seems to be enjoying the freedom to roam, but I won't let him go far. The last thing he needs to do is tangle with a squirrel. Without front claws, he'd almost certainly lose.

So, I brought Pooka out to M's with me place this weekend. I think he's just been left alone too much recently, so I thought I'd take him out here with me. Besides, he has to meet the dogs sometime, right?

It's weird - the dogs are fine with the strange cat wandering around the place. They're curious, but that seems to be it.

Pooka started by hiding out under the futon, in the room that we blocked off so that Pooka could get in and out, and the dogs couldn't get in. Once we went to bed, Pooka started wandering the house, and then hiding under the bed once the dogs realized he was there. Things have calmed down since - he's not hiding under furniture any more - but every time a dog walks within 2 feet of Pooka, the ears go back and he starts to hiss. Havoc walked by, and Pooka actually batted at him. Now, since Pooka has no front claws, and is all of 10 pounds to Havoc's 110 pounds, Havoc thought this light tap was play. Heh.

So Pooka's generally staying as high as possible - he's been perched on one of the top stairs for most of the morning - and the dogs are basically ignoring him. That seems to be working.

I'm just worried that Pooka gonna bite one of the them, and they're gonna snap him in half. Any aggression's gonna start with the cat, though, it seems.

So far, so good...