Abbey the hunter, Cincinnati pictures

As always, the pets are keeping us entertained. Yesterday Abbey was outside and I could see from the family room that she was hanging around the patio door wanting inside. As I approached the door I could see she had a dead bird hanging out of her mouth! She was pacing back and forth and really wanted inside. John and I got outside without letting her in, although it was obvious she was upset she couldn't get passed us because she was meowing a lot about not being able to take it inside. She was really funny about the whole thing -- very proud of herself. Although it was quite sad seeing the little bird hanging from her mouth, we knew she was being nice presenting her kill to us so we made a little fuss to her about how brave she was (although after thanking her kindly I did have to remind her that I am a vegetarian). She ended up dropping the bird and Lucy grabbed it and took off with it, leaving Abbey pacing and meowing about where it had gone. Somehow John managed to get it back from Lucy and bin it.

Abbey's five years old and this is the first time she's hunted something down that we know about, apart from the occasional leaf that she proudly brings back to us. A couple of weeks ago there was a dead bird by the patio door, but none of the pets were near it when I found it so I didn't know if Lucy was responsible or one of the cats. The bird was a really pretty little green thing. I told Abbey that really if she is going to be a hunter she needs to graduate to chipmunks, vols, and moles, as those are the pests that we and our neighbors are constantly trying to outsmart. We like the birds. Although I must admit that since we've been letting the cats out we have noticed a big difference in the chipmunks. I don't think they've gotten any of them, but just having the cats out there seems to have scared them away.

In summary, thank goodness we don't have a cat flap! I have the feeling that if Abbey could have gotten into the house of her own accord yesterday, I would have heard a cat flap followed shortly by Abbey jumping onto the couch and dropping the bird onto my lap!

Lucy is also still making us laugh. She has suddenly taken to laying on top of the hottub! Abbey spends a lot of time laying up on the cover of the hottub, and we guess Lucy just suddenly decided she belonged up there, too! This just started on Friday. We're surprised she's able to jump that high, but she does so with ease. I'm sure she feels like she's queen of the world up there. We just hope she doesn't lure Macy into going up there, because Macy is 30 lbs heavier than Lucy and I'm not sure the cover will hold!

About a month ago we went to Cincinnati to see a baseball game with my mom, stepdad, brother, sister-in-law, nephews, stepbrother, and his girlfriend. Here are some pictures from that trip.