Last night was visitors night.

Not long after supper, I was sitting in the kitchen reading when I
heard munching and crunching behind me - out of curiosity, and in
hopes of finding an available lap cat, I turned around to see which it
was: it was Mickey, my neighbor's big neutered black and white tom.
He's friendly, and gets along well with my cats, but he's not a lap
cat.

Shortly after I went to bed - I was still petting the two that went to
bed with me - and I heard sounds of serious aggression coming from the
kitchen ... not the usual hissing and growling that some of the small
females do around the larger males - this was a real threat.  I got up
and went into the kitchen to see what was going on: Mooch was eating
leftover canned cat food.

Mooch is a stray or feral that I feed outside and am trying to adopt -
he clearly wants to join the colony, but is afraid to be too pushy.
Sebastian *hates* Mooch and tries to kill him at every opportunity
(not that Sebo necessarily comes off the winner).  Mooch saw me and
bolted - he had to go right past Sebo to get out, and Sebo attacked
him - a knock down drag out fur flying fight ensued ... right at the
cat flap.  I grabbed the squirt bottle and broke it up.  Mooch escaped
and Sebo wasn't too badly damaged.

About 1:30 in the morning, I was awakened by rain, wind, thunder and
lightning ... and a very wet Osy in my face (Ozy is smart enough to
come in out of the rain, but not smart enough to come in before it
starts, and the wetter he is the more affectionate he is).  I had a
severe case of dry mouth and after pushing Ozy off the bed, got up to
go get a drink in the kitchen.  As I entered the kitchen, I looked
through the door into the (lighted) mud room, and there was the
raccoon I hadn't seen in about a week, eating the cat's food.  She
quickly ran out.

If there were any other visitors, I slept through them.

T.E.D. (tdavis@gearbox.maem.umr.edu)
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