Hi everyone!
Again, my most abject apologies for not posting recently.  The month
that Dennis was home passed in a flurry of activity and house-related
projects.  Not to mention an insane number of social events, probably
mostly due to the season.
Anyway, now I'm 1300 posts behind with no hope of catching up.  Purrs
and hugs for everyone who needs them.
This is the latest update on how Vino is settling into his new home.  I
kept him inside for the entire 3 weeks from when I moved in until Dennis
came home.  But as soon as Dennis got home he wanted to start
introducing Vino to the cat flap.
We got him a breakaway collar with a little bell and a tag with our
address and phone numbers.  We started letting him out for short periods
during which we followed him around.  We didn't want him getting too
close to the unmowed areas of the paddock due to the possibility of
snakes and we didn't want him going up near the road even though traffic
consists of maybe 1 car an hour.
As soon as Vino got a taste for the outdoors, he became insatiable!  As
soon as we'd bring him in, he'd want out again.  We had to hurry up and
get him trained on the cat flap as soon as possible before he drove us
all mental!
Cat flap didn't take long.  The first couple of days he had to bat at it
to get it swinging and then duck through.   But soon enough he was just
busting through head first.
We started taking his collar off him at night when he came in and locked
the cat flap.  In the morning, after breakfast, the collar comes on
again and the cat flap gets opened.  He doesn't even go out much during
the day.  He likes to go on a patrol for a bit after breakfast but then
comes in and sleeps most of the day on our bed.
Dennis got a ride-on mower and took care of all the long grass and
cleaned out under the big trees so you can see any creepy crawlies.
In the evenings, Vino gets really active and goes in and out constantly.
He's so obviously happy to be able to come and go as he pleases.  If
he's outside and Dennis or I go out there, he throws himself down on the
ground and rolls around exposing his belly and flapping his paws,
purring non-stop.
One time he even brought us a little mouse that he'd killed.  Thankfully
it was no longer alive.  We praised him big time but took the body away.
Unfortunately he doesn't go near the big tree out front much anymore.
The birds have scared him away.  There are some fairly big black and
white birds that have a nest there.  Not magpies, but a little smaller
and more white than black.  The birds are really mad when they see Vino
so they swoop down to attack him and actually tear tufts of fur right
off his back!
But the absolutely funniest thing that happened the other day was that a
big green parrot (ringneck) flew into our window and died.  Vino was
outside and proceeded to stalk the dead bird.  He crept up to it, slowly
and belly to the ground.  At the last minute he pounced, grabbed it and
made for the cat flap to bring it in.  Dennis rushed over and quickly
locked the cat flap.  We don't exactly need a big dead parrot in the
house!  Vino was stunned that he couldn't come in and kept trying to get
in.  Finally, Dennis had to go out and grab the bird and dispose of it.
But we were both howling with laughter and Vino's big brave stalking of
an already dead bird!
At night, when Vino comes in for the last time, we take his collar off
and lock the cat flap.  This has now trained him to where he knows the
flap only works when the collar is on and the bell is jingling.  He's
not bugging us to go out after lock-up like he used to at the old house.
Plus it keeps us from waking up everytime he moves in the bed at night.
So the system seems to be working out just fine.
So that's the latest Vino update!
Like I said, I'm way behind and will try to catch up but it will take a
while.  I hope everyone is doing well.
Hugs & purrs,