The Monster

Dear Pablo,

Monica and I have been going Outside now for some time. It is mostly very fun. I love to smell the air and feel the wind in my furs. Monica is getting braver about exploring with me too. But we are having trouble with this red monster that lives down the street from us. It comes down our road, growling at us loudly. I am sure that it is trying to come and eat us! When it gets to the wide spot in our road, it gives up, turns around and leaves. It is a very tricky monster. I think it is trying to get our guard down and then really eat us up.

Monica is very scared of the red monster. ( I hate to tattle on her, but she is kind of a sissy). One day, the monster came growling at us, then left as usual. When it was gone, I told Monica that the coast was clear and we could go on our walk safely. But Monica decided that she didn't want to go outside anymore. This is very dissappointing. I like it when we all go Outside together. Now, Monica checks very carefully out the door to make sure the monster isn't anywhere around. It takes her a long time to decide that the coast is clear. I say, "come on Monica! Let's go!" I sniff her and give her a little lick to reassure her. I wish that mean monster would just leave us alone. I wonder if Skeezix has any special vishus monster repellant...

PS. One of our friends was wondering how Tracy would take us both for a walk. We tried that once, but it didn't work out very well. Monica and I couldn't agree on where to go, so we would pull Tracy nearly in two. We always recruit Grandma to go on walks with us now. We make a great foursome!

Together

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

As you can see, the eagerly anticipated arrival of my very own harness has come. Tracy bought me a pretty pink one because she was thinking of Lilly Lu at the time and also because she knew I would look great in pink. She was right, don't you think?


This was only the second time that I went Outside on a harness, and I was still a little nervous. I sat and watched Phoebe for a while. Grandma held onto Phoebe's rope and Tracy stayed with me. (That clearly means that I am more important in my household.)



Once I was ready, we went exploring. Here are some interesting discoveries about our yard. This area used to be a jungle as you can see from the tall greenery that is growing there still.




And here we can clearly see that there was a volcanic eruption many years ago. That is why there is so much red rock in this area. It makes a very crunchy noise when you walk on it and it's a little prickly on the paws. We have two convenient walking paths that allow passage through the volcanic area of our yard.








After a we were through with our independent explorations, Phoebe and I teamed up for grounds patrol. We kept in mind all the great suggestions that all our friends made about what we should do on our rounds.













I think that Tracy and Denis are very glad that we are here to keep an eye (or four) on things. Everything is in place for today.

I did it!

Dear Pablo and loyal fan club members,

Thank you all for your encouragement about going Outside. Since so many of you have fun out there and Phoebe kept going on and on about how great it was, I decided to give it a shot. How do I look against the green grass? I think it makes my eyes stand out.

I was a bit nervous to first go out the front door, but once I took a look around at all the interesting things to see, I forgot to be scared. The harness didn't even bother me much. I had been watching Phoebe very carefully from the window, so I explored some of those places she had told me about. Firstly, I wanted to go under the porch, but Tracy said "no way!" Then I thought I would give some of the different plants a taste. Again, a negatory from Tracy. She says some plants are poisonous for cats and she doesn't know which ones, so I should just stick to tasting the grass. What a bother!

Look at these pretty flowers and plants over here. I tried to eat these ones, too. I mean, really, why would they plant them if they weren't meant for snacking on?

Ha ha! Phoebe had to watch me through the window this time. Watch and learn, little sister! Tracy says if I decide I like this, she will get me my own harness and we can all go Outside together. The End. ~Monica










This is SO not fair! That is MY harness and I am the one who is supposed to wear it and go Outside. ~Phoebe

It's time for a nap.

Dear Pablo and friends,

I am so tired from all my Outside adventures. I have been going out each day and I really do like it. Today I walked all the way to Grandma's house for a nice long visit. It was fun to go in the door, check out the rooms and then go back Outside again. I'm still a bit unsure of what I should do when I am Outside. I start out on the porch and I'm never sure what to do first. Can you friends who have more Outside experience give me some tips about what important activities I should include on my rounds?

You have to keep in mind that Tracy is always following me around. Sometimes I am glad that she is there because sometimes I get a little spooked by a noise or some people nearby. Then I walk over to Tracy and rub against her legs. It is reassuring. But other times, she really slows me down. And she is very noisy with her walking! The other day I tried to catch a bird. I was sneaking up on it real slow-like. Then when I went to pounce, Tracy didn't keep up and the bird got away!

Now, I'm just cozying up with Monica for some beauty sleep.

Look at me!!

Dear Pablo,

Look! I got a new harness. If you look closely at this picture and the one of my old harness, you can probably see the difference. Tracy had to take the other one back. Even though it was pretty striped colors, the one-piece, figure-8 design made it too easy for me to get it off my head. I did that twice on Monday and on Tuesday, Tracy turned it back in for this one. You will notice this one has more buckles and straps on it. I have tried to pull it off my head, but this one stays put. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but Tracy is glad of it.

So far I have gone Outside each day since Sunday. I am getting used to my expeditions and getting much more brave. Monica keeps a close eye on me through the window because she is worried about me:







Here I am checking out all the pretty flowers. We have a lot of them. I hardly noticed on my first time Outside because I was so distracted by all the loverly grass.






For a while I visited with Monica to reassure her that I was just fine. But that got boring fast!













So then, I had Grandma take over holding the rope so that Tracy could take some proper pictures of my adventures. I wanted you to see how brave I am, Pablo.








See, here I climbed on top of our "doghouse". No dog lives at our house, so I'm not sure why we have a doghouse. It turned out to be very slidey and I had a hard time posing for this picture, but I hope you will understand.

(note: this "doghouse" is simply a structure that hides the piping for our water service ~ Tracy)





Look at what I found next! A wall to climb on and some wood pieces to sniff. They smelled different from the dirt and grass. These plants don't have any flowers yet. I wonder why?








Well, that is about all the interesting things that I saw on my Tuesday expedition. I hope you are very proud of me.

The Door

Dear Pablo,

This door goes to The Outside. I would really like to go out there. My people all go out this door and then they wave to me from The Outside. I can see that there are pretty flowers and birds out there, too.
I can smell The Outside when I put my nose down at the bottom of the door. Sometimes, I have been able to sneak out there when no one was paying attention. Whenever a person is gathering their things to go out the door, I am very attentive. I wait patiently for an opportunity to run Outside before they can grab me. But most of the time Tracy or Denis notices me looking and one of them picks me up. Then I am out of luck! Once the door is shut again, they put me down but it is too late. I am going to ask Tracy to buy me a harness like Tara has so that we can go for walks. But she says that once I get a taste for The Outside, I want to sneak out even more. She may be right about that. Darn it!

"Outside"

Dear Pablo,

Denis and Tracy were working outside today digging in the dirt. They let us onto our screened-in porch so that we could watch them and sniff the air. We would like to go dig in the dirt, too, but we are not allowed. I think it is because of Phoebe's propensity to wander away. A lot of our limits are due to Phoebe (in case you hadn't noticed), but she's a good kid. Well, I guess it is a good thing that we don't go outside, according to your new friend Diamond, it is a very dangerous place to go with diseases and big metal monsters. You are very brave, Pablo, that you go outside. I hope you are very careful. Here is what we saw out our window today: