Portia's game

I went back to bed after having Joel's waffles and Portia joined me.  We woke up around 10am.  We both have been slow moving today.  She's laid on my lap for quite a while this morning, and I didn't want to bother her. 

After I started pulling together the sheets and other things needing a turn in the washer, I decided to have the last container of homemade chili for lunch.  So I sit at Joel's usual place, looking out at the birds (including quail!) at our feeders.  A downy woodpecker comes to the suet feeder hanging off the deck and a junco comes to pick up any suet the woodpecker may have dropped.

Here's where Portia's game comes in.  It's around 32F outside, pretty cool for Her Highness and there's still ice out on the deck.  She sees the birds and scratches at the deck sliding door.  I ask her if she really wants to go.  She scratches again.  I open the sliding door a little and she sits there for a moment, watching and letting cold air in.  I take the side of my foot and gently press it against her rump -- the sign for "if you're going to go out, you need to go out."  She promptly turns and comes back in and eats a few bites from her food bowl.  My translation of that is that she wants to crunch bird bones and if it's too cold for her, she'll crunch her food instead.

We've played the game twice so far.  I'm sure we'll have a few more turns before the day is over!

Comments

[mosker]

This kind of weather is what convinced Janie that living inside might be worth the sacrifice. She doesn't charge for the door, so she must not have had second thoughts.

[Rustee]

Silly cat! Sounds like Razz and his fear of icy steps. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a litter box, so Carl has carted him down the stairs several times this weekend.