P.S.

Well, it isn't ALL snuggles and kitty kisses, ya know.

Take today. Jasmine is an indoor kitten who very rarely gets to go outside. I'd bought a leash for her and let her roam around with it once or twice before I went to New Zealand. i.e. November. Today I figured I'd give her another poke around The Great Outdoors.

She refused the leash. This shouldn't have come as a great big surprise, as it has been an awful long time -- but she wouldn't let me get the harness clipped and, well, she's gotten a lot quicker with the teeth than she was in November. Fine. I was doing this for her benefit anyway, so I dashed my fingers in there really quick and removed the harness before she nipped at me.

I had to go outside and get the mail anyway. I've taken her in my arms outside before, and figured I'd be able to keep a good grip on her -- in the past, she's kept a good grip on me, so I figured, "What the hell."

I got a few steps down into the courtyard and she meowed. I walked back to our door and gave her a choice of in or out, and she seemed to want to go with out. OK, fine. Back down the stairs we went.

Now, I don't know if it was curiosity, not wanting to be held that long, or the fact that I'd somehow reorganized her so I wasn't holding her the way I usually do -- but whatever it was, by the time I was downstairs by the mailbox, I had one seriously wriggling and clawing kitten on my hands.

I got us back to my apartment without her making a break for it (and somehow I had acquired and kept a grip on the mail), but, for my trouble, I also got an inch-long rip right through my shirt, and a scratch (deep enough to draw blood) running pretty much the full length down my stomach from bra-strap to waist. Yeowww!

Yeah. Love her to bits. I just wish she didn't love me to bits so darned literally.