The Green Thumb Experiment

It's been a whole week without rain (knock on wood) so I'm trying out this whole "container garden" thing.

Possibly because I've been working out on the patio more often, Luna has gotten very good at streaking out the front door and into our little patio area. While I'm glad she's not taking off down the street, I do kind of wish she wouldn't make a mad dash for freedom every time we open the front door.

We have a little "kitty halter/leash" for Luna to wear. Cats don't belong on leashes. They don't understand leashes. They resent leashes. And yet it's the only way Luna gets to go outside so she TOLERATES the leash.

While "gardening" yesterday (with Luna sulking resentfully at the end of her kitty leash on the patio), I met one of the neighborhood kids. A very nice boy, maybe 11 years old, who decided yesterday was the day to tell me his life story. I didn't want to be rude, so I stopped gardening to listen politely to what I thought would be a 30 second "hi, I'm a neighbor, your cat is pretty, goodbye I have to go play video games" conversation. I misjudged the boy. Intermingled with his life story, he had a lot of questions about cats:

Boy: "Why do cats like to chase birds?"
Me: "Probably 'cause they're small and twitchy and they move fast. And they have feathers. Cats seem to go wild for feathers."
Boy: "Does Luna like to eat birds?"
Me: "I'm sure she'd love to chase and catch and toy with birds. She'd probably eat them, yeah." (Didn't want to say she'd most likely "play" with them until they were limp and bloody and then promptly lose interest, leaving the bird to die of it's internal injuries hopeless and alone.)
Boy: "Why do you think dogs like to chase cats?"
Me: "Cats like to run away from dogs? Dogs like to chase things that run away from them?" (Maybe because cats have that whole curiosity problem. You know, always asking questions...)

Then I got to hear about all the pets that live in our 37 unit complex, including dogs and cats that USED to live here but then moved away with their owners. After 10 or 15 minutes of smiling and nodding while potting soil crusted on my hands, the boy left. Luna had had enough of the leash by this point and so I took advantage of the sudden silence and took her back inside. And a good thing too, because 30 seconds later the boy was back with his two cockatiels sitting on his shoulder.

Luna may have been on a leash, but I'm betting if she'd still been on that patio, we'd have found out the answer to the age-old question: "How long would it take a small orange cat to Houdini it out of a kitty halter, jump onto the shoulders of an 11 year old boy, and incapacitate / mortally wound two cockatiels?"