Big Acoustic Kitty, Reporting.

They've done it to me again. What exactly was wrong with the last place we were living, may I ask? I had a nice sunbeam in my window every morning, a high-up spot with a second water dish, and lots of places to hide that smelled like me.

And I did NOT appreciate that week I had to spend at the vet. (Mama tells me it was less than a day, but what does she know?) Those people didn't even let me have a room of my own - they put me in a room with The Evil One. But, I hissed at her and let her know I wasn't going to take any of her nonsense, and she mostly stayed over in her own carrier. And speaking of carriers, I got even with Mama - usually I have my little "accident" in the carrier on the way to the vet. This time, I saved it until I was in the carrier on the way home. Maybe one of these days Mama and Papa will make the connection - no trip to the vet, no stinkiness.

Okay, that's enough of that. Regardless of the necessity of this move, we're here now, and I'm trying to make the best of the situation. For the first couple of days, I stayed in the bedroom because The Evil One was upstairs, whining and fawning over Papa, as she does. She even tried to come in and colonize the bedroom, but Mama was pretty good about shooing her back out. Give that one an inch, and she'll take a mile. I did come out a couple of times, just to show her that she wasn't intimidating me any (and to steal some of her kibble.) Eventually her food and her nasty litter box went downstairs, and she got shut on her side of the gate, leaving me to properly explore this new place.

There are a whole bunch more rooms up here than in the old house, and just about every one of them is full of boxes. The boxes all smell like the old house, and they are conveniently arranged so that I can climb up and down and get all kinds of different perspectives on the situation. In one of the rooms, I was able to walk along three of the four walls without ever once touching the floor. I'm a mountaineering kind of cat, and that was just pretty cool, let me tell you. (I even climbed high enough in one spot that I was taller than Mama.) Every single room has more than one window, and most of them get morning sunbeams. So far, so good. I'm not very happy with the bathroom, though. There's only one sink, and apparently I'm not going to get my own water glass up on the counter. I look at the counter, then look at Mama, then look back at the counter ... but nothing happens. In the old house, that was the signal for the Mamavator to deliver me to the counter so I could get a drink. I'm going to have to work on that situation.

Yesterday, Mama went downstairs and left the gate open. The Evil One wasn't around, so I just walked myself down the stairs to check out the first floor. Mama came around a few minutes later and found me in the family room. She made quite a fuss over me and told me what a good boy I was to come downstairs like that. (She's kind of a mess sometimes, but I humor her.) I went around and around and around downstairs and checked it all out. My eyes don't work too well anymore, but my ears and nose certainly do. It's a huge house, and there were all kinds of things to investigate. I found the sliding glass door in the kitchen, and I now understand why Evil has been spending so much time down there. Evil wasn't happy that I was in "her" territory, but I ignored her and just kept right on checking things out. (Mama was also playing escort, so that helped.) Just when I thought I'd explored the whole house, Mama opened another door, and there was ANOTHER flight of stairs into a basement! I got about halfway down those stairs, but then decided to leave that for another day. Evil was getting hissy, and I had to hiss back at her to get her to back off. Even then, Mama had to shoo her away so I could get by. But mostly, the basement smelled like wet dog and some other cat. I'm a Super Explorer Kitty, but I'm also well into my 'teens, and even I need to pace myself a bit sometimes.

So right now I'm enjoying the open windows in my upstairs. Evil is downstairs where she belongs, and Mama is going back and forth doing whatever it is she does. Usually in situations like this, I'm getting my picture taken every time I turn around. However, I think Mama and Papa misplaced the camera in the move. I'm sure they'll find it and get my photo up soon. I'm sure I look very handsome on top of all those boxes.

Respectfully Submitted,

The Big Acoustic Kitty