Life According to the Mice of Solebury

For those who don't know, I have two cats, Minerva and Max.  Both are adopted.  I adopted Minerva in 2001 from the ASPCA after my beloved cat Puka passed away.  Max was adopted in 2009 from the MSPCA in Massachusetts after I had my first apartment for a month and decided I needed a cat.  When you grow up with at least one cat around all the time, it can be hard to imagine life without one.

Max sitting in the window in Cambridge.

Prior to Max, all of the cats were indoor/outdoor.  They could come and go as they wanted, but generally spent most of the time indoors.  Until very recently, Max was indoor only.  Living in Boston and Cambridge in an apartment building isn't really a good place for an essentially free roaming cat.  However not long after I moved home in September, Max decided to venture outside.  The first time since moving home he was gone for a day and a half, which really scared me.  After that, it wasn't long before he was catching mice, bringing them in and playing with them.  Poor Max must be so bored if he is bringing in his own "toys" to play with.  

This morning I came downstairs and heard Max meowing.  He likes to talk, so I just figured this was his usual, "Hi Mom.  Good Morning.  How are you?"  Once I found him, I learned what the commotion was all about.  About a foot from him there was a ball of fur, a tightly curled up vole.  Max's response was almost like, "Look at that, he just wandered in.  Honestly, I have no idea."  Poor thing.  After Max tried to play with his new "friend", I went to the closet for a broom.  "Max, playing only works when the two participants are equally engaged, not when one is petrified of the other."  I was able to scoot the vole to the opened front front door, unfortunately, he ran under the closet door and Minerva saw him go under.  After that, Minerva crouched by the closet door for nearly 40 minutes just staring at the crack.  Poor thing.    

Max is meowing again...wonder what this means...

I'm trying to get my picture of Minerva, but it's not working very well.