Dear Diary, I've been sleeping the month away and so much has been going on here with the cats. Big Tom has not shown his face in our neighborhood for at least two weeks. He's been the alpha, the granddaddy of all cats. But now he's gone away. No sign of him. Maybe he was feeling too much stress from the humans to become tame. Maybe he went after a rat in the creek and a bigger rat went after him. There's no way to know. We don't send out search parties. We don't do rescue missions. His genes run through each and every cat here. We will miss his face.

This moves my dad up a few notches on the dominance list. He and Winnie are always threatening to have it out, and maybe they do have their spats at night while I'm tucked into a nice warm bed and unaware of what's going on out there in the yard.

Moochie has also disappeared. She more or less vanished into thin air I think. The last few times I saw her she was getting thinner and thinner, and then poof, she was gone. Unlike Tom, who was full of vigor, Moochie was sickly and thin. I don't think she went out of the neighborhood at all. She just melted away until there was nothing left of her--no body, no bones, just thin air where she had been.

Dear Diary, I took a nice leisurely stroll around the neighborhood this morning. Finally, it's not 100 degrees and the air is not dripping with humidity. Very pleasant, with a slight breeze. The bamboo behind the man-child's building has grown about to it's maximum height for the year. This is a nice hiding place, in the bamboo stalks. Cool, too. Soil just a bit moist where the sun can't reach to dry it out. Sometimes the chickens take my spot here, but I can tolerate a chicken now and then. Chickens may look small to you, but try standing next to them when you are eye to eye with them. They are giant birds with giant claws and a dangerous beak. It's most often wisest not to argue with a chicken. As far as giant birds go, the ducks win paws down in this neighborhood. Their feet aren't as wicked as a chicken's, but I stay clear of them to be on the safe side. I do enjoy watching them float on the pond water. I've pawed at that water and my foot goes right into it. I don't float at all. Weird the way ducks don't seem to get wet and more or less simply drift around on the water.

There's a new rooster in the yard. No tail on the thing yet and a feeble crow, but definitely a rooster. My human's man brought some smaller birds home a few weeks ago and put them in the small fence cage. I heard they are 3 baby roosters and 3 other things we've never had before. They all look like small chickens to me.

I found Osiris out and about the neighborhood also this morning. He likes to be outside.

And, of course, I had to run into Greeter. That crazy boy is always kissing up to me. Can't hardly get into the house sometimes trying to get around him. All in all, if you discount my encounter with Greeter, it was a pleasant walk on a pleasant morning.