A friend stopped by to feed and watered my cats Boris and Natasha while I was in the hospital. Of course as soon as Stevan entered the apartment, the cat hid. During the six days he only got one brief glimpse of them. He thought at one point that they got outside. But they were still inside, and there was always proof of their existence . . . if you get my drift.

When I got home I expected them to run to the door. I forgot for a moment that they are cats and not dogs.

At best, I was staff returning from an unauthorized leave of absence.

It took them the better part of an hour to venture out from hiding. They did a lot of sniffing, apparently I passed the inspection.

Over the next few days I noticed them staring at me, a lot. More than once I awoke during the night, only to find both Boris and Natasha--wide-eyed--sitting on my bed staring at me. SPOOKIE!

They are back to normal now, but I'm not convinced that is a good thing.

-Mark-

I know exactly what you mean! Over the 4th of July weekend, my daughter drove me to Pennsylvania to surprise my mother for her 85th birthday (all 5 of her kids were there and it was a total surprise! Good times!) My other daughter took Sassy, but my cat, BillyBoy had to stay home alone. Needless to say, he was not happy, even though I was only gone 4 days. About a week after I got back, I took Sassy to the groomer and when I got home without her, BillyBoy was very vocal about the fact I was not leaving again! He even got between me and the door and yowled at me! Guess he thought because I came without Sassy, I was leaving home alone again! Animals keep our lives full of surprises

As I mentioned, when I got home, they did not run to great me at the door. In fact it took them a long time to venture out from hiding, but everything is normal now.

Boris was the first to venture out of hiding. I said, “hi buddy, I missed you” while petting him.

Ten minutes later Natasha came out, and I wept like a school girl. I think I may have a favorite.

He is a photo I took of Natasha with my iPhone. I oped my eyes in bed, and there was Natasha just sitting there, contently staring at me.

-Mark-