What Passes for Nature Here

Like A. and B. and me, Harriet is still getting used to our new home. She isn't yet confident of her territory, I think partly because she may still be trying to figure out what is her territory. (Outside. She is perfectly confident, nay, even dominant, inside the house.)

So she goes out, takes an experimental roll on the flagstone, creeps over to the edge of the pool, takes a discreet little roll there, and then skulks about under the bushes and along the fence. She likes to chitter her teeth at the birds, and the birds like to scold her from the safety of the high branches, so there is entertainment for all.

She got into a fight the day yesterday, if by a fight we mean that she was mauled by a bigger, tougher, older cat, the bully of the neighborhood. In fact, my next-door neighbor had warned us about the mean cat. I didn't find any puncture wounds, but Harriet was limping and spent the next 24 hours sleeping. We gave her canned food, a rare treat, and that perked her up a bit. Today she is fine, and the limp is gone, and she was ready to go outside again. I didn't want to let her, but I did it because I thought I should. I wanted to protect her, but that is contrary to her need to go out and protect her territory.

Harriet also likes to crouch down and look up at the ducks flying overhead. A lot of ducks do fly overhead. They are on the way to the community pool. Ducks--a lot of them--swimming in the community pool is a common sight. A. and B. and I find it very amusing that since we have lived here, we've seen ducks in the pool every day, but we never see people there.