I’ve come to the conclusion that I do not like WordPress’s image upload features. I’d rather do it manually, but then I miss out on the auto thumbnails and whatnot.

While Michael was napping Midna decided to make herself at home.

First the cats encountered the dogs— through the glass door. My mom has two dogs that run loose most of the time. The cats had already had a tiny run in with them when we carried them inside the night before. What this picture doesn’t show is how much Midna arched her back and bushed her tail out after seeing the dog. Since they were running around the back of the house we decided to take the cats out to the front. What we didn’t count on was my mom’s dogs running to the front of the house as quick as they did.

As you can see, Poe was not amused. We hadn’t brought Midna out yet so he was the only one that got to experience the dogs up close. (That is, until one of them got inside the house the next day. That made both of the cats run downstairs and stay there for a good while.) See, not only is Poe not amused about the dogs he really didn’t like the whole outside experience. At. All. He wasn’t quite as bad as Minda who wanted to bury herself in our laps or run under the steps but he didn’t seem to enjoy it at all.

On Monday my mom suggested that we go hiking at a nearby park. I’ve been to this park several times but never on the trail she wanted to go on. So off we went to climb this ridge. And a climb it was. They’ve made it fairly accessible but there were some pretty steep parts. I took several photos that I’ll be posting on 365 this week so look out for those.

This is what we were treated with at the end (rather, the midpoint) of our hike. Sadly it was a rather hazy day so the mountains didn’t show up all that well. I think if I were ever to move farther away from this area the mountains are one of the things I’d miss the most.

After a short break we headed back down. The trip down was considerably shorter than the trip up. Maybe because my mom and I stopped less to take pictures but maybe because of two incidents we had. The first happened when we stopped for a minute to rest. My mom thought she felt something crawling on her neck but then realized that there was a HUGE hornet on her leg. Maybe it wasn’t a hornet but it was large and definitely looked like it could sting. That certainly shortened our break and off we went again. It wasn’t long, though, before she started yelling and pushing me off the side of the trail. At first I couldn’t figure out what was going on until I saw this:

Believe me, when I saw that I started screaming as well. My mom thought it was a copperhead but when we showed the pictures to some family they said it was a rattlesnake. Whichever the case it’s still a snake and likely poisonous. Michael had walked right by it on the other side of the path but it was between us and our way forward. My mom and I walked very slowly off to the side and managed to get around it. Her pictures were probably better since she had her telephoto lens; you can bet I wasn’t going to try to get closer for a better picture! Once we were past it we definitely walked a bit faster and kept a sharper eye out for any more snakes.

Midna still does not like baths. At. All. True, she likes to hop in the shower when the door is open and play in the tub when no water is running but as soon as Michael put her in the water she ran to the back and started meowing like crazy. I had to leave the room because her meowing was so pitiful I couldn’t stop laughing. I also couldn’t help laughing when Michael handed her to me to be dried. When he saw this picture he said that she has a look that says “Just wait until you sleep. Then you die.”

Poe takes his baths a little more stoically. He’s more used to them though as we’ve had to give his feet quite a few washings. However, it seems that he’s learning to not step in his poo so he’s been getting fewer of those. Instead of clawing and running around like Midna does he just kinda sits there and meows occasionally. His fur is also different from Midna’s so he doesn’t look quite as pitiful as she does. This picture, though, is just too funny. I think he looks a little traumatized.

Somehow my cat knows this. Lately whenever I make a trip to the little girl’s room she follows me. Often as not she decides that she needs to go too and visits the litter box. It still cracks me up when I see her following me in there. Of course, Michael will yell “See!! Girls always have to go in groups.” I think he’s just jealous because when he even goes near the bathroom she runs away. I think that’s because he was the last one to give her a bath.

They seem to be doing very well. Midna still likes going everywhere. As soon as a door is opened within her hearing she comes running to see what’s going on. I think she’s also picking up on the sound of car keys. We’ll need to be careful with that one. They’re both doing well with using the litter box though Poe can’t seem to keep his feet clean. Poor guy has had a bath a day or more, even. Hopefully it’s just because he’s young. I hope to get them to the vet soon to arrange for them to be spayed and neutered when the time comes. I certainly don’t want to be giving away any kittens!