We both have a little panic attack stepping on the scale

Any time we get anything in a box, Jub must check it out. He isn't a small cat--long, tall, and weighing in at about 13 lbs. The recent package from Amazon did not come in a 13 lb. box. Not that it stopped him from trying to claim it for his own.

Settling in. This is a cat who is determined to nap in that box:
De-ter-mined to fit:
And finally, even Jub had to acquiesce to the fact that his girth was too much for the box:
I like that you can really tell how small the box is when he's sitting in it.

As funny as the cat is trying to squeeze in the box, I'm giving him a little extra loving tonight (when he comes out of the shoe box that he's claimed as his own after Sunday's shoe purchases). I was spraying outside for bugs (figure we'll try that before I call an exterminator) and was sweeping up the leaves and other stuff along the back patio when I made another icky discovery. When I moved the grill, I discovered a nest underneath it. It was most likely of the mouse variety since there was the tell-tale fuzz that mice like to use as well as chewed seed pods from the yucca and the desert willow.  Eek!  I don't know like the recent varmint parade at our house! I'm SO thankful we didn't have a mouse in the house. With the four cockroaches we've had this spring, throwing a mouse in the mix would have meant the end of me in this house. I'd either have keeled over or just walked right out. I can handle pretty much any other thing but mice and cockroaches make me cry like a little girl. I'm also VERY thankful that the nest was not in use because I'm very certain I couldn't have handled baby mice. I'm not such a bleeding heart that I would have wanted them to live and grow and have mice families of their own but I'd have had to put a box or something over them and waited until Paul got home so he could take care of them.

I'm giving the cat credit for keeping the mice at bay. I doubt he had much to do with it but we've got to throw him a bone every once in a while. And you can bet that now I'll be out there moving the grill at least once a day and it won't be staying outside over the winter ever again.