Yes, this morning Harri Roadcat and I discovered a whole new world - the
world of predawn kitten walks.

We spent the night at the Pilot truck stop in north Palm Springs. I went
in to the truck stop to shower this morning, and when I came out (around
5:30 AM) the temperature was around 70 degrees with just a light breeze.
It felt great! When I returned to the truck Harri was sitting in the
driver side footwell - her signal that she wants a walk. We were parked
right on the edge of the property with a a large empty field behind us
and a high-intensity streetlight next to us. I figured "Why not? It
won't last very long" (our recent walks have only lasted 10 or 15
minutes before Harri has wanted to go back).

So I hooked up her harness and leash and we set off. Talk about a
change! Normally she hates being within 50 feet or so of other people's
trucks - she finds them very scary. But not this morning! Her tail sent
straight up with a little curl at the end, and she started
kitten-prancing around the scrub brush and sand piles. Instead of the
usual slow meander and occasional stop to sniff, she was darting every
which way, making pounces in invisible bugs, leaping from sand pile to
sand pile - it was like she was a new kitten!

Normally when we come upon an insect hole or lizard hole it warrants a
couple of bops with a paw. This morning, though, such a discovery
required a couple of very impressive pounces followed by a flurry of bops.

And when we happened upon a small tree with a bird perched on it's
branches, Harri saw it and started to climb after it. Normally she
doesn't even see birds, but whe saw this one and wanted it! Of course it
heard her coming and flew off, but she sure gave it a good try.

We got to hear all sorts of night-birds that we couldn't see, saw a few
bats go flitting by, and even saw a couple of owls cruising overhead. I
watched them closely - they were BIG owls.

We're going to have to do pre-dawn kitten walks a lot more often. I
absolutely LOVE to see Harri enjoying herself like that.

Dan