Stella!

Okay, so the transfer of cat-owner to cat-sitter has occurred. StellaBella Felinni is our new houseguest for the next three months… All the love of kittiness and parents to which she will later return! Yes. It’s perfect.

But of course: a story.

So we knew that Stella would really dig it on the porch; it’s cool and refreshing and she can taunt the pigeons without any recourse (the porch is enclosed by screens), but of course I have been meaning-to-but-totally-forgetting to restaple the netting where our landlord undid it to check the porch for fixing, so I put Stella’s papa Murray to work on the screen with a staplegun, a temporary fix until our landlord fixes the porch.

For the switch-off and a couple other reasons I made a big pot of taco soup and homemade tortillas. Murray is without a car while his lovely wife is in Dallas where they will meet up and fly to Finland, therefore the reason we’re keeping “the Stelbow” with us. So Alison brought Murray, Stella and all “the StelGear” and her sweet son Mac, and so I invited David & Kim and their lovely daughter, Sonia to play with Mac. Sonia & Mac kept each other entertained by turning themselves into “kid burritos” with our yoga mat. Adorable.

Mac contemplating the menu

David (of course) brought bugs, and we all snacked on them appropriately. David is preparing for “Bugstock” on Saturday and I’m baking him some “Buguettes” for the event… but more on that tomorrow. He brought with him some “stinkbugs” which have a surprisingly sweet jasmine-tea flavor. I liked them. Alison was a little unsure…

As David was leaving he mentioned that Stella was downstairs, but I didn’t really hear what he said. I knew he said something, I just didn’t realize it was “hey, the cat is downstairs” so when I opened the door my little grey friend bolted for the bushes.

video embellishment:

So a half an hour later and the abandonment of all persons outside of Murray, Stella was culled from the deep, dark underbelly of the front porch and returned safely to the apartment. Thank God! I was completely embarrassed that I let the cat escape on her first night here WITH her owner in the apartment, where he had to sit crosslegged in between bushes to sweet-talk her back home. Murray was cool about it, though, and gave me the rundown on what to do if she escapes again: “Wait her out.”

So now there’s doubletime lockdown. We are ensuring the closing of all doors to the outside (save the side porch) for the safety and well-being of our little guest, Stella.