Mere nearly gave me a heart attack today. Suddenly, she was acting
strange. She hid under chairs and the bed and peeked out fearfully. I
thought she must be ill. She was so strange. In the hallway, she was
alright and even played a little with her rope toy. But when I carried
her into the living room, she suddenly wriggled out of my arms and
hot-tailed it out in the hallway and hid under the coats. This happened
several times, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was wrong.

I looked around. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then a gust of wind waved
the flag on the pole outside my window. Mystery solved! Poor Mere, she
is terrified of the flag. (The flag is up today to commemorate Mikael
Agricola, who developed Finnish as a written language.) I live on the
third floor, and the flagpole is just so high that the flag waves right
outside my window.

Poor Mere, she probably thinks it's a huge bird of prey come to eat her.