More kitty drama

I managed to lure Tommy our feral (not so feral these days)cat into the studio yesterday; but he freaked out once in there, and started climbing along the window edge where I have some throwing tools. He freaked again when he knocked down some of the tools and ran to the back of the studio and hid under one of of my raw material bin tables. So I decided I'd better tidy up and make the studio more cat friendly and moved some of my unfired and bisque pots high up on ware carts, made sure all glaze buckets were well covered, etc.

After that I sat at my desk doing some paper work, while talking to him and trying to coax him out from under the bin table, but he wouldn't budge. After an hour I put some food in front of the table and he peeked his head half way out, so I left the food and gave him some alone time.  Later when I went back in the studio, I saw that he had climbed on top of one of glaze bins tables, then up on the shelving and then higher along a narrow shelf where I had a lot of pots displayed. From there he settled on top of the bathroom ceiling as you can see in the picture. That's about 11 feet high!  He knocked down a bunch of jars and other containers, as well as a favorite shino piece which of course wound up on the concrete floor in pieces. Fortunately that was the only pot casualty. So I got Jim to help and we removed all those pots.

This morning Tommy was back under one of the glaze bin tables and I was able to lure him out with petting and food. Once I had him in front of the studio I opened the door, giving him the opportunity to go outside, which he did, but he came right back in twice! He was more interested in being with me and getting petted. So, I'm going to spend a lot of time in the studio today and hope I can get him to use the litter box.  I can smell male kitty in the whole studio from his having sprayed.  I'm beginning to wonder if he's ever even seen kitty litter! Jim is going to get a bigger litter box today and hopefully the new box and fresh litter without Bonnie's smell, will get him to figure out what he's supposed to use it for!

I've got some re-constituted porcelain to spread on plaster, wedge and get bagged and a few other studio chores. I dare not turn on any machinery for a day or so because I think that will freak him out even more!

Grove Park Inn Gingerbread contest youth winner

As promised, here's the gingerbread winner in the youth category. I think this was my favorite. I love the ingenuity of using shredded wheat for the thatched roof - rather brilliant, I thought.

It's been a bit of an eventful day. Bonnie kitty was terrorized by a neighbors Tom cat and got herself cornered on a steep slope filled with wild roses.  Jim and I spent over a half an hour, in the freezing rain, trying to locate her by her moanful cries. We managed to chase away the bully and Jim got the neighbor to lock up the offender so we'd have a chance to coax her out of there. We were cold, wet and bleeding from those rose thorns and finally retreated to the house, hoping she would soon follow.

A very cold, wet, Bonnie kitty finally showed up a bit later, after much coaxing and calling. I rubbed her dry, gave her treats and she's been sleeping ever since. I started on the dal and raita for our Indian curry dinner and now I'm going to have a well earned glass of wine. I may never let her out again. The physical and emotional strain is too much for these old bodies!