Hi, Everybody! It's me...Tag!
This week, the Ladies of the Barn wanted to show you how Mom fixed up their winter quarters. They're in love with it, and Mom will sleep better knowin' they're not freezin' on the front porch this winter.
So, even though they're Felines of Few Words, follow them as they share images of where they like to hang out durin' the day, and sleep - comfy and cozy - at night.
Take it away, Claudette and Crystal!
Thanks, Corgi Butt!
Claudette speaking.
I'm going to be the only one chatting today, as I'm the Mom and well...Crystal.
Let's start by showing you how our humans (servants) winterized the entry to our castle.
That's one big opening into our accommodations, but now we won't have a cold, east wind
blasting in when the weather turns. There's a brand new painter's canvas (folded in half)
hanging across that opening. it's weighted down at the bottom, but we still have the opening to the
right that will be our entrance. We think it's just wonderful, and hope the raccoons don't find it.
Once inside, you'll find our newly arranged sleeping quarters, as well as our sunny sill for winter tanning.
If you look around, you'll see that our female servant sealed up some of the cracks and crevices where it
was particularly drafty last winter. Of course, we had sleeping boxes to stay out of the wind, but this is
so much better! There isn't a single breeze that gets in here now! She even pushed insulation into the
area between the top of the walls and the loft above us. We think she thought of almost everything!
From our perch here we can see the seasons change, catch some rays, and even snuggle in the
little insulated igloo she added. There's a self-warming mat up here now, too. More coziness!
It's a little too dark to tell, but the roundish thing on the left is a small cat tower with two compartments.
We didn't use it very much last year, but I've curled up there more than once since it's reinstallation.
They can call me The Queen of Everything when I'm up there!
This is the same setup we had on the front porch. Crystal and I started sleeping on these
chairs in the spring, so our servant put fleece blankets down to keep the chair pads clean
and to help us stay warm when the nights were still chilly. It was a perfect place at sunrise.
Then, one spring day, it was blowing and raining. She worried about us, so she turned her chairs
like this to make a better shelter for us. By then, we were the only ones who regularly used them.
Crystal was a little shy about being around anyone except She Who Feeds and Cuddles Us,
but she quickly warmed up to the idea of a safe place to sleep here. Besides, my son, Leo
had shown back up in the barn, and the poor boy was so sick he was leaving nasty residue
all over our lovely beds and blankets. It quickly became a place that even a mother couldn't
stomach. Crystal and I left him to his mess. They tried to catch him to get him to the vet, but he was
too smart for his own good. I haven't seen him all summer, but I do hope he made a full recovery.
After it became our real sleeping quarters, new elements were added. First there was a canvas
cover, pinned and tacked to cover our new, padded beds. When I kept trapping Crystal (inadvertently)
by lying on top of the canvas, a wooden shelf was added to span from the back of one chair to the other.
Then the canvas was reinstalled, and I had a bona fide perch that didn't disturb anyone. There was
also a gap between the house side of the chairs and the windows into the living room, so we could
look in while we were in our beds - and insiders could look out to make sure we were safe and secure.
The colder it got, the more layers were put over the canvas, until we got to the point you see here.
Finally, our benefactor couldn't stand the weather getting harsher for us, so she declared it
was time to move us back to the barn. (We think that surprise snowfall was the last straw.)
It began with us supervising a day of cleaning her potting shed (our room in the barn).
Once everything was clean and dry, she put our food dishes back on the workbench to tell us
this was going to be the new plan. We saw that our old window perch was clean again,
and we even had new blankets back in the styrofoam coolers we slept in last winter.
But, it wasn't until a few days later that our porch chairs showed up. We were happier
than cats in a room with NO rocking chairs. We even took naps in there the first day!
Our beds are back in here, but what you can't see is that we also have self-warming pads
under our blankets, an igloo (in case anyone wants to be alone), and it's completely sealed up
on the wall side (where we used to have a gap). It's windproof now and we're out of the elements.
We hope you liked the tour. Not to be rude, but it's dinner time, and we really must go.
Perhaps Tag will share a little air time with us again in the future, but for now
Adieu, and Adieu,
Claudette.
Well, I sure hope you had fun with tourin' with the haughty Claudette this week. Mom says one of the good things is that the "gifts" on the porch have diminished since they moved out to the barn. I think it's great havin' porch stuff to smell, but Mom and Dad aren't big fans. Plus, Mom ends up on her hands and knees scrubbin' the concrete. Boo and Carly love chasin' the cats back to the barn, but I can take 'em or leave 'em now. They've kinda grown on me. (Don't tell anybody!)
Gotta run for this week. I'm sure there's somethin' that needs my attention. If not, I can always just bark. Mom and Dad love that!
I'll see you again in seven. 'til then...
"Been There, Chewed That!"
