Poor Timing

Drat!  A trip to town was imperative yesterday, like it or not.  Frank and Pearl had been indoor-outdoor cats and used the litter box generally in the winter only.  Ralph and Celeste get their exercise by jumping in and out of the box and we were running short of litter.  There are those items for which there is no substitute, litter being one of them.  The cats were in their cave under the bed when I went into the bathroom for a quick spiff-up before leaving.  Standing at the sink and feeling a tentative brush against my leg, I looked down to see Celeste rubbing up and purring.  Yes!  The "ignore them" treatment was working!  Lots of rewarding strokes and sweet talk kept her with me, even when Bessie Anne entered the room.  The two nosed each other without growl or hiss and it was a red-letter day.  The timing was off, though, because I did have to leave just as we'd reached success.  Even worse, as Bess and I were walking away, Ralph came out of the cave to see why everyone but him was having a good time.  I'm sure he would have joined in, but I had no choice.  A trip to town is a minimum of three hours round trip and I had to get on the road.  I lacked confidence that a cat-dog war would not break out in my absence, so once again shut the cats in the bedroom.  I'm hoping for a repeat performance today.  Timing is everything.

Two days ago the house was so cold I lit a fire before going down to the barn.  Yesterday the temp was in the high 70s.  It is only mid March.  Nature's timing is off, too.