My day begins with three, short angry bursts of meows floating down the stairs. Suspect it is Scotty who is upstairs with Reese and Promise. I roll over and look at the clock and groan- 1:00 a.m. At least, I went to bed early at 8:00. I was so tired from re-organizing Scotty’s room so next time he trashed it, very little damage would be done to it. Add to that yesterday was clean and scrub all litter pans day so I was plumb worn out by the end of it all. I had hoped the man caves I left upstairs would alleviate the early morning wake up call. Apparently, this didn’t work. Just as I daily seek refuge with the Lord, I had put several safe places in the room where Scotty could also rest and feel safe. He’s not with the program yet.

Yesterday late in the day, I went upstairs to feed the kittens and I couldn’t find Scotty at first. I panicked a bit, remembering Hook and his escape, but then I calmed down my breathing and took a hard look at the room and began a systematic search. I found Scotty huddled inside one of Mike’s old fireman boots! The boots were tucked back into a closet.

Yesterday morning when I played with them with Nekoflies- all I saw of Scotty was his paw out from under the futon. This morning, half of him appeared to join in the prey time. Still not fully trusting me and afraid I might hurt him, he is reluctant to show himself yet.

I put the toy away safely and spread out the food on their bowls. Turning off the light, I settled down on the floor and just waited. The only light in the room was the hallway light and after about 30 minutes, all the kittens were out and exploring and playing. I stayed quite still, keeping my eyes halfway closed when Scotty looked at me. Although he made a wide berth around me every time he passed, he still felt less threatened then yesterday. They didn’t eat while I was sitting there. Reese, Scotty and Promise were more interested in the cats who had converged outside the screen door. I smiled into the darkness as Scotty’s journey started on a pretty good note.

Today I need to take Donovan back to the vet. They performed an “Oops” with his surgery and instead of tucking the sutures back inside of him, they left one outside. Yesterday when I saw him walking a bit funny and working on his rear, I took a look and noticed one long stitch wrapped around his testicle. At first, it resembled a round worm- but when I got the flashlight out and really looked- I saw it was a suture! Hopefully, the clinic isn’t closed today and they can rectify this mistake before it becomes infected.