Muscari patch

Our patch of muscari (grape hyacinth) out by the driveway is looking nice right now. This hastily snapped photo doesn't really do it justice. There are a few daffs out there, too. You can see Tasha's worn path on the lower right.

Grape hyacinth, daffodils, and some tulips that haven't flowered yet.

Around one o'clock this morning, Bert got up went downstairs as he often does. For some reason I got up and followed him. When I got to the bottom of the stairs I was surprised to see two black cats in the living room. One was Bert, of course. The other was a neighbor's cat. I yelled, "Get out of here!" and then Bert chased the other cat down to the utility room and out through the garage. I closed the door to the the utility room and Bert had to spend the rest of the night there, in the garage, or outside. He's been an outdoor cat (with access to the ground floor rooms) for most of his life. We've only recently started letting him sleep upstairs in the house and keeping the door to the utility room ajar for his midnight forays. We're going to have to rethink that.

We've found neighborhood cats in the garage and utility room a few times in the last few months. They started coming in and eating Bert's kibble once Bert was sleeping upstairs. We don't leave kibble out any more, but the cats still come. So the options are: (1) go back to keeping Bert out of the upstairs rooms over night or (b) keep him indoors over night, close the access to the outside, and put a litter box in the utility room. He hasn't needed a litter box since he's been going out at night (almost ten years), but he knows how to use one.