... One day it was cold and rainy outside so I decided to follow Ann when she went through that door. I ran as fast as I could to keep up with her. It wasn’t until she passed the hole in the wall, where they found us, and went up some stairs that I had to yell to tell her I was coming too. The stairs were hard to climb. If I stood on my back legs, I could barely reach the top of the next step. I would push my way up and then had to do it all again for the next step. Ann just laughed at me and told me “If you want to follow me you will have to get here on your own.” I did.

Where Ann worked was up high in a room that had windows on three sides. I liked sitting in the windows and watching the birds fly past. Sometimes, I tried to chase them but when I leapt at them, I didn’t go far enough and would land down on the floor. I don’t know what Ann was doing but she got down on the floor and was looking at some of the things I had been playing with when we first got up there. She kept putting them all in a pile but I helped her to get the little ones out of there. I moved some of them across the room and up into the chair. She got up, took them all back, and sat down at the desk. When I got cold, I laid on top of a warm box that she called a “monitor.” Sometimes, Ann let me drink some of her water and shared part of her lunch. She liked to eat cheese when she worked. When “work” was all done, I followed her back down the stairs. They are much easier to go down than to climb up. Before Ann left, she always made sure we were all there in our “bed,” as she called the box, and gave us some food with milk poured on it. After that first day, I always went to “work” with Ann it didn’t matter if it was rainy or sunny. I liked to be with her and to keep her company by sleeping on her monitor.

Ann—

Our little charges are growing like weeds. When we first found them, they weren’t able to get around very well but now they seem to be everywhere. Their ears stand up now and look so huge on their little heads; it won’t be long before they grow into them. They look like they will all be longhaired. I think we have two little girls and three boys in the group, it’s still hard to tell. I’m surprised by how social they all are considering that their mom disappeared when they were so young. Every time I come here, they greet me with a meow and a rub against my leg. Such little charmers they are.

The other morning when I arrived, we were having one of our usual summer rainstorms. The wind was howling through the basement door that we’ve propped open so the kittens can get outside. All of the kittens had piled up in their box on the boiler trying to stay out of the wind and wet. They all looked up and watched me when I came in. I stopped to pet them and make sure they had food. When I left to go upstairs, one of the little boys, the white one with gray spots, decided that he would go with me.

I didn’t realize that he’d gotten through the door until I heard him cry as I was climbing the stairs. I try to keep them out of the main house for their own safety and to keep them away from the other wild life that hangs out in there. He worked so hard to get up the steps that each one was a major accomplishment. I couldn’t help but to laugh at him as he struggled to get a foothold. Finally, we got to the office and as I opened the French-style doors, he rushed past me into the room.

I had opened the door to cat heaven. There were papers to scramble through and rustle up. If they gave him any back talk, he simply tried to destroy them. Then he noticed the windows. Using an old easy chair, he climbed up to the sill and proceeded to walk around the room. From his high vantage point, he was able to see the squirrels in the treetops close to us. But, even better, the birds were only an arms length away! For what seemed to be hours, he tried to catch them and on several occasions, his lunges resulted in a dramatic crash to the floor. The birds were doing their best to weather the storm in the branches close to the house and didn’t appreciate his efforts at all. There was much chattering and commotion outside the windows in addition to the howl of the storm.

Without the sun and with all of the northern exposure the office can become quite cold. In the winter, I’ve been known to wear gloves and a jacket while I worked. The space heater wouldn’t work that day so the room was very cold. I put my sweater on and went to work.

Everyday I was there I had to sort of start over. I had to locate the files I last worked on and hope that everything was still in them. Ben doesn’t mean to make it more difficult. It’s just the way he is and that is why it has been such a hassle trying to get this mess, he calls books, straightened out. As I crawled on the floor looking for receipts, the kitten thought I was playing with him. He would pick up the small bits of paper and run away with them. After some while I got them all gathered up and began to input them into the computer. I suppose I was really concentrating because the first I noticed that the kitten had settled himself on the monitor was when his tail dropped across the screen. He had found himself a nice warm spot to sleep while I worked.

I always had an escort when I went up to the office after that first day. The little guy would see me coming down the drive and would beat me to the inside door every time. He became quite adept at running up the stairs and made a quick tour of the main floor before I would get to the office door. Always, he would rush past me into the room. Often he would checkout the bird situation, but without fail, he would plant himself on the top of the monitor for most of the day.

The day that he discovered the computer mouse arrow was a very frustrating one for me. He hung over the top of the monitor and watched as I moved it around the screen. Then he began to try to catch it with his paw. When he couldn’t, he jumped down onto the desk in front of the monitor and stalked the mouse. I couldn’t see past him and he wasn’t about to move out of my way. He was such a little Idget, (my father’s pet name for us when we were being pests). I bribed him with some of my cheese that I’d brought for lunch and he drank out of my cup of water as if he owned it. Finally, the birds came to my rescue and distracted him from the monitor. As I was, leaving for the day, Ben came in and told me that the kittens were getting to be pretty decent mousers. He commented on the fact that it seemed that this one had adopted me. I just laughed and said we had a houseful already, thanks....