Hello All,

Just wanted to let everyone know Our Meowmie returned from the Florida place
tonight! She does not appear to have been eaten by anything, and we are
naturally very relieved to have her home. We can't let her KNOW right away
how happy tho, as she appears unapologetic and thoroughly unaware of her
wrongdoing in going away and leeving us! To top it all off, I can smell the
trace scents of ANOTHER CAT on her luggage.   Unrepentant runaway slaves
must be punished, after all.  Just not too much. SHe went around flinging
windows open and saying things like "AAAAHHH!! COOL AIR!!"  Granted, it was
very hot when she went away, but it is not very hot today. Don't know why
she's making all this fuss , though.  Meowmie says the cat we smell is our
cousin Tribble who investigated her bags thoroughly.  But WE know she's been
fraternizing with strange cats.  I am concertedly ignoring her, tonight.

Panther

Hi all,
Melissa speaking. I am home, having avoided being eaten.  I didn't see any
sharks, and only the eyes and the end of the snout of one alligator.  I damn
near melted, though.  =o) If Alligators could roll their eyes, that one
would have. We were on our way home from an excursion to St. Andrew's State
Park and stopped when we saw a crowd of about ten people standing at the
edge of a pond, all talking excitedly, pointing at and taking pictures of
something in the water, which turned out to be the alligator.

I'd like to go back to Florida, but I won't go in August!  It was so hot
and humid at Seaside that it was unpleasant to go walking unless you
ventured out very early in the morning or very late at night. Most of the
time, we just walked back and forth between the house and the beach.  By the
time you walked back to the house from the beach after swimming, whatever
cooling off you'd managed in the water was already undone.  But maybe this
was just as well, as the place was full of madly expensive little shops that
charged resort prices for everything. Still, it was a lovely, relaxing
vacation, and we rented a very pleasant, comfortable house. Even though
there were eight of us in total, there was enough space so that each of us
could have some privacy as well as have fun. It's not too often that all
four of my mom's kids are together at the same place and time.  Mom really
enjoyed her birthday party on August 11th.  We all had a wonderful time
swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, (wonderfully warm and gentle, to those of us
used to the much colder, rougher  Pacific) playing games, doing artwork and
catching various lizards, toads, frogs and lizards. (It was all catch and
release, so no creatures were held for more than a few minutes.) My brother
and nephew are incredible frog and toad fanciers, and they stopped several
times on their way to our rented house from the AIRPORT on their first
night. One night, it rained rather hard, and they went charging out as soon
as the rain stopped to look for frogs.  "Obsession" is a rather mild way to
put  their interest in amphibians.

   Tribble, my four footed niece, is one of my brother David and SIL Jaye's
two cats.  She is a large, long haired calico who decided to be friendly
when she noticed I knew how to give out a good ear scritch. She definitely
rules the roost around their place. Mosca, a little grey  short-haired
mackerel tabby, is my other niece, but she was damned near invisible. When I
tried to make friends with her, she ran and hid in David and Jaye's bedroom
as far under the bed as she could get.

I am very glad to see my owners again, although sad that the vacation I've
looked forward to all summer is over, already.

Melissa