Tortoise Cat's latest troubles

Tortoise Cat: The Big One said we are experiencing technical troubles blogging, but all I crave is fresh wild Cat-Grass.

Chameleon: This will be a short blog post, looks like. But shiny, tiny green sprouts are pushing up beneath our paws here. Wait some more days and we'll smell the grasses!

Tortoise Cat: EYOW -- Cat-Grass Season is over!

Tortoise Cat: Chameleon, Cat-Grass Season is over. This new home territory is some colder than wherever that was we lived before, isn't it?

Chameleon: Yes, Tortoise Cat, there are more critters and trees here, but fewer degrees. The Deeper-Dreaming Season -- my favorite -- has begun.

Tortoise Cat: EYOW, I dread the frosty, icy stones stinging my toes!

Chameleon: But, remember, you have some more cushions here, too.

Tortoise Cat: EYOW, I meant to learn hibernation. Maybe during the next Cat-Grass Season I shall succeed.

Chameleon: Dream on it, Tortoise Cat!

Tortoise Cat: Now Chameleon, can you blow some of your hot air on my paws while I tiptoe-rumpus a while in these amazing, smelly grayish-purple leaves (that the Big One insists "glow golden, orange and yellow")?

Tortoise Cat's first explorations of the new territory

Tortoise Cat: Chameleon, our new yard must be raccoon territory -- look who we woke up. What a big fella is eyeing us, EYOW!

Chameleon: But this place has lacked feline leadership, Tortoise Cat. That's where you come in.

Tortoise Cat: How do you like the "cabin" we inhabit now?

Chameleon: We are some ways off the roads most traveled, and I find the place charmingly cosy.

Tortoise Cat: Many flavors of Cat-Grass are thriving all around. But these indoor spaces are cavernous and mysterious to me...with cosy spots nestled here and there...and some odd-sounding odors.

Tortoise Cat savors the stinking, singing garden of late Cat-Grass Season

Tortoise Cat: MmmmAHHHYmmm these dried flowery-friends stink stunningly and hum happily, Chameleon!

Chameleon: The Monarch butterflies found those Aster flower-fellas tantalizingly tasty while they were bright purple and yellow, Tortoise Cat.

Tortoise Cat: OK, but Chameleon, I saw those fluttery fly-guys flapping in blah-ish purple garb, while the Big One saw "bright orange," I heard -- supposedly fantastically remarkable...But I couldn't see it, while these "Aster" flowery-friends wore clanging, singing purple hats, while they stank up some wild, wind-dancing tunes.

Chameleon: Oh my...How amazing!

Tortoise Cat: But, for me, they stink even better now -- nose-rufflingly, fur-blurringly dry, while the dusty breezes rustle by.

Chameleon: Hmmm...How's the cat-grass tasting today, Tortoise Cat? Do the grasses sing their greenery for you now?

Tortoise Cat: Cat-Grass Season resounds up and down -- chanting a rumpus, all around!

Tortoise Cat shows bright furs amid lush ferns

Tortoise Cat: I could elude the Big One by creeping deeper into the lush ferns, shrubs and hedges of this garden territory, Chameleon.

Chameleon: Tortoise Cat, I would tattle-tale your location, for your own good!

Tortoise Cat: But I would only disappear for a while...or two...or some...just for fun.

Chameleon: The Big One is too busy to wander around looking for you...while worrying.

Tortoise Cat: So, what does worrying mean, Chameleon?

Chameleon: It's like fright, without flight, happening and happening, again and again and again, before any scary happenings actually happen.

Tortoise Cat: EYOW! Beyond comprehension! I shall play on.

Tortoise Cat: Early cat-grass gnashing is a YUM-rush!

Tortoise Cat: Gnash...YUM...This is the best new cat-grass patch, Chameleon!

Chameleon: I must take your word for it, Tortoise Cat. Maybe, later in the season, we can discuss chomping and gulping fresh, plump, tasty bugs.

Tortoise Cat: In a while, there will be more and more cat-grass, but these early stalks blur and ruffle me through and through!

Chameleon: And I'm glowing greener as my tongue dreams of the first, juicy fly-ZAP!

Tortoise Cat rearranges the indoor rock garden

Tortoise Cat: Chameleon, do you like the new rock and rug arrangement I convinced the Big One to make?

Chameleon: You, Tortoise Cat? You're taking credit?

Tortoise Cat: Well, I cat-nap dreamed the Big One unrolling the pretty green and purple rug I noticed humming at me, stashed away where I was hiding out a while some days ago. After retrieving the rug, the Big One also shifted some rocks and cushions at my direction.

Chameleon: Purple? The orange and green rug is what I'm staring at!

Tortoise Cat: You see it your way. I see -- and hear -- it my way.

Chameleon: So, Tortoise Cat, this rug was humming at you?

Tortoise Cat: Uh-hum...Humming as purple as flies swarming, Chameleon!

How many whiles until Cat-Grass Season?

Tortoise Cat: How many whiles must I wait before the next Cat-Grass Season?

Chameleon: Well, how high can you count, Tortoise Cat?

Tortoise Cat: Chameleon, I count to One, Two, Some and More.

Chameleon: OK then, I can tell you there are -- most likely -- More whiles to go yet.

Tortoise Cat: EYOW...Let us hurry back inside and crunch some treats!

Tortoise Cat dreads the end of Cat Grass Season

Tortoise Cat and the Next Generation of Thistles

Tortoise Cat: Chameleon, I smell hints of colder days blowing in soon. My paws and whiskers can feel the dark, snowy, icy season that I refuse to acknowledge by granting it a nick-name stealthily, steadily creeping up on us!

Chameleon: Oh, play on, Tortoise Cat. This year's Cat Grass Season will last some fun whiles longer. Weeds and grasses are renewing and thriving in our home territory, though our tree neighbors are shedding their leaves early.

Tortoise Cat: Does Cat-Grass Season last longer in the Central Valley of California, where the Big One wants to go and mark new territory?

Chameleon: Grasses grow through the darker, rainy days there, but need extra water during stretches of longer, hotter days.

Tortoise Cat Hastening Home in the Wind

Tortoise Cat: You know how much I dislike wind gusts and rain storms, Chameleon, but let us pack and go anyhow—before the first snow falls and all the puddles freeze over.

Moving to another territory far way, some day

Tortoise Cat rests in a favorite territorial garden nook.

Tortoise Cat: The Big One mentioned moving to another territory! Why?

Chameleon: The rumpus of city life...? Winter snow impeding progress...? I don't know, Tortoise Cat. It must be an old longing for the first home territory.

Tortoise Cat: What do you mean, first home territory?

Chameleon: It's wherever one is when exploring and marking beings, like your first place with the Big One, two blocks westward.

Tortoise Cat: Where is the Big One's first home territory, Chameleon?

Chameleon: It's in a land called Central Valley, where summers are hot but dry with cool night ocean breezes. The way big ones reckon distances, it's much closer to my own home territory called Point Reyes Seashore.

Tortoise Cat: How?

Chameleon: I will shape-shift into a dragon and fly, Tortoise Cat. But you and the Big One will pack a van and roll along.

Tortoise Cat: A van? What is that? Must we roll dangerously fast like we did to and from the Big One's folk's territory during snow-season, way too far westward, but wonderful when we arrived?

Chameleon: A van is much bigger than the car you rode to the folk's place in and it will roll slightly slower. But, you will roll much farther westward and arriving will be...wondrously amazing. The ride to the Central Valley will take about five days.

Tortoise Cat: EYOW! What is "five"...?

Chameleon: Five is just one of the many, many words the big ones use to say "some"...but as cats count, the ride will take some days and nights.

Tortoise Cat: More than one and more than two, is too, too long a ride, Chameleon. When?

Chameleon: Next year, probably. And that's too long from now to keep on conversing about today, Tortoise Cat.

Tortoise Cat: Is next year after cat-grass season? Because this cat-grass season might never end.

Chameleon: It won't happen before the next cat-grass season, Tortoise Cat.

Tortoise Cat: OK, Chameleon.  Let us play, nap and dream through every day of this perfect cat-grass season that might last forever.