Category: Toby

“Look at me! I’m OUTSIDE!”

“I’m not in my veranda!”

“I can watch birds!”

“I can roll and do other cute things so my mama won’t suspect that I’m getting ready to chase the birds!”

(Karen says: No birds have been harmed in Toby’s outside adventures. But I feel bad that the quail are so tame after three years and now I have to shoo them off when he’s out. However, Toby > quail.)

Toby will be three in less than a month, so in cat years that means he’s anywhere from 18 to 28 (the internet has no clear answer on this). It also means that he’s suddenly decided he wants to go OUTSIDE.

He’s been an inside cat here for two years and his foster mom said that he had been inside before that, but he caught the call of the wild last Monday and started charging out the door whenever I opened it. In an effort to control the situation a little, I started putting a collar on him and letting him out for short bursts. He LOVES it.

[No picture because I am terrified of leaving him unsupervised for even 30 seconds.]

I am all kinds of conflicted–I always planned on letting him out (with supervision) when I had a yard with a secure fence, but the apartment is open in front and back to cars and other yards and more scary things. He’s being really good about staying close, but I think this tiny taste of freedom is going to go to his head. But I don’t think there’s any going back now….

Today marks two years of Toby in my life! He’s the best cat and the best friend and very probably the love of my life.*

Here he is on day 3 (so small!):

And here he is on day 728:
I love this cat so much. Here’s to many more days.

*I’m also celebrating two years of being a crazy cat lady; can you tell?

They can help you with small home improvement tasks, such as putting in a new shelf and re-organizing your broom closet.
Yeah, this shelf is solid, mama.

And they can inspect your cooking utensils, so make sure they’re all OK.
Uh, this one has a smell.

(He’s not usually allowed up on this counter, but the rearranging created so much excitement that he had to check it out.)

How did it get to be Tocktober already? Before you know it, it will be Nosevember.

As you might guess from the title of this, Sunday was a pretty bad day. But everything ended happily so really, it was a great day.

Saturday night I went to bed with Toby sleeping on the in-progress quilt, so when I woke up once in the night and he wasn’t on the bed I thought, “Oh, he’s on the quilt.” I woke up again at 4:30 and he still wasn’t on the bed and I thought, “Where the hell is he? I’d better so check.” So I get up and he’s not on the quilt and he’s not anywhere and I’m already getting a sinking feeling and yes: He pushed out a corner of the screen in the front window and was gone.

Well, about four hours of panic ensued–panic and lots of walking and hollering. We made a two-block radius around the apartment, I went down into Memory Grove, I made fliers and started posting them, I put up an ad on Craigslist and ksl.com, and did I mention the panic part?

I called my mom again after the flier posting and she said, “Put out some food and be sure to check really carefully in all the corners of the yard.” So I started investigating the potting shed in the back parking lot here and wedged between the back of the shed and a tree trunk was a very, very scared Toby. (Isn’t the wisdom of moms fantastic? How do they learn these things?) He was too scared to even meow at me, which is why we missed him in the frantic search (and it was dark), but I scooped him up and carried him back inside.

Then, of course, all he wanted to do was pace the windows (now shut) and go out again. Um, kitty? You didn’t seem to be enjoying yourself. There’s no food out there. Let’s stay inside, OK?

Anyway. That was Sunday, but all is well now. I’d like a weekend to recover from the weekend, please.

Sit it in like it’s a big tote and be really cute.

Then tip over.