Prize

We started letting Nestor outside during the day a while ago (and keeping him in the basement at night), to reduce the chance that he'll pee on something important. The other cats sometimes follow him out there. They seem to have a good time. I don't like the extra risks they're incurring by going out--I am generally in favor of keeping cats indoors if you can--but it's a pretty quiet neighborhood and the alternative is basically getting Nestor put down.

(There are rumors of fishers invading the neighborhood and chowing down on pet cats. It may happen in some communities around here, but I suspect that the rumors are vastly overblown and that most of the claimed fisher sightings and noises are really just cats--our next-door neighbors' cat Buddy has a particularly eldritch cry. Some people don't even seem to know that a "fisher cat" is not a cat and doesn't look anything like one. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that local coyotes do eat pet cats sometimes. I guess it's a risk we take; probably cars are a bigger danger.)

Yesterday, we had our first instance of bloody entrails horked up on the patio by an unknown entity. I guess it was inevitable.

Dawn launches

On to Vesta and Ceres.