Dear Toby,

Today is your unofficial birthday! I know you were born in June so I picked the third for you, same as my birthday. Here you are when you were a baby, before you came to live with me:

You’re three now, and you’ve been going outside like a big boy. I’m proud that you got so brave so quickly, but it hurts my feelings a little when you run away from me to go into the neighbor’s garage (or into the bushes, or into the other neighbor’s yard, or under the cars in the back parking lot, etc.).

Since you’re all grown up now, let’s make a deal like grown-ups, OK? You will stay mostly inside for the rest of the summer and I will find us a new place to live, one that has a yard with a fence and less traffic. It will have lots of rooms to explore inside, too–it might even have stairs! I know you love stairs. Almost as much as you love laundry:

Even when you get too excited by the outdoors, you are still the sweetest, cutest, and best cat. I’m so glad you came to live with me.

Love,
Mama

PS–Do you think you’d like a new kitty tower? A really tall one?