What About the Cat? And random pics

Ok, the cat. On Friday, which as you recall began on such a fine note, we were finally able to coax Cassius out of his hidey place in the closet. He was still very nervous, but also seemed interested in exploring a bit. In the afternoon, Paul and I left him at the front door of the house and headed out to the workshop to sort through stuff.

That was the last time we saw him for almost two days. By Friday night, we were frantic. We called around the property and shook kitty treats, and walked up and down our road, to no avail. The next morning, still no cat, so we headed down to the river (which is large and lovely) and beat through bushes calling and calling. Paul spent almost two hours after that going round to neighbours with jars of honey and asking if they'd seen a small black cat. Nothing (except lots of friendly, helpful neighbours with stories of coyotes and disappearing cats!).

We went to bed that night feeling incredibly sad. The loss of our kitty cast a pall on what was otherwise a perfect experience. I woke in the night worrying about him, so I decided to see if I could 'tune in' to where he was. I had a strong feeling he was close by, but otherwise I had no idea. We had searched every shed and every tree.

This morning, Paul climbed the ladder to the attic one more time to shine the flashlight around and have a look. And there he was. He brought him downstairs, and wouldn't you know, after eating and drinking, he headed straight back up. Paul snapped this pic of him climbing the ladder-- something I would never have thought a cat could do:

Paul didn't think he could get through the trap door, which he'd shut, but as you can see...

He had to grab him again and bring him downstairs, and the upstairs hall door is now shut.

Yesterday he gave us another scare-- was gone from 5:30am until 9:30 last night. Paul says that cat will be the death of him.

 Ok, more pictures of our lovely home:                 

View of the mighty Columbia

Hazelnuts line the driveway...

                                                       Raspberries and garden bed...

Pears...

Apple... there are also peaches, and an old apricot that Patsy, our tenant (more about Patsy later), thinks is the last of its kind. She and I have been digging the apricot saplings and potting them for planting next year. There is lots of room for more fruit trees. Paul and I want to plant a fig.

This is the 'banya', or bathhouse, built at the same time as the main house. There are benches inside and you can see where the stove once was. I can just imagine the people here going for a good steam at the end of a day of hard, outdoor labour, then running down to the river for a plunge (that's my vision, anyway). Its a great garden shed.