Drawing the line in the sand- well, maybe snow

As you are probably aware, one of Stephanie's cats, Tonks, has discovered the wonderful world of being outside. She spent hours on the deck this summer, watching the birds, bees, squirrels and houseflies. Outside... is a wonderful place. Exciting, wild and at its best, when it is night time.

Tonks loves being outside, on the deck when its dark. We rarely let her out then, because she is mostly black, and all it would take if for her to slip under the deck rails and we would lose her to the night... but this being said, she tried to sneak out as often as possible when it was dark.

She has noticed over the past few months that its cold and uninviting outside, and even though we have left the door wide open for her to go out, she is most certainly a fair weather kitty, and stays way back from the door, just in case we try to push her outside (which is slightly tempting).

Just after New Years though, the temptation consumed her, or she just lost her mind.. because, during one snowy but not cold evening, she forgot herself and bolted out the back door to make her night escape when she was stopped dead by the white line drawn on the deck.

We do believe that this is Tonks' first encounter with snow. She sat for the longest time watching the light snow flakes coming down and was tempted to chase a couple that dropped close to her.

After about a minute, Paralax became curious and sat in the doorway, watching Tonks. All was going well, with Tonks concentrating so hard on the dropping snow, she didn't notice Paralax. Paralax couldn't leave things so peaceful and decided to sneak up on her. Well, Tonks freaked and broke into a run, in the wrong direction and TOUCHED the snow....

After a few steps she realized what she did, and turned around and bolted into the house (leaving a tell tale skid mark in the snow) and ran down the basement... we didn't see her for the rest of the night. She hasn't attempted to go outside since!

Side note.... Pika, in the best cat toy ever... A Wicker Emporium bag. They all take turned getting into it.. This was the first turn. The bag is now shredded and in the garbage but not before several days of hide and seek. We had to throw it out when we found the handle of the bag snugly wrapped around Tonks body, with no bag attached. Bahhhhaaaaaaaa