Give me land, lots of land

Tiny checks for scent messages on the bargeboard of the little house post blizzard

Just before being so rudely interrupted by the power outage this morning, we were fixin' to post about a fascinating field study carried out in the side yard on the social dynamics of spatial configurations  -- with Tiny and Baby as study subjects -- demonstrating how overcrowding can lead to violence. As blogged here, we had shoveled a pathway to the little house, with a branch off to the right to give access to the patio table as a viewing tower.

Both cats signaled their desire to venture outside (hanging around the back door and giving us the evil eye as we walked by). Out went Tiny, with Baby close behind.  Suddenly Tiny started gasping for breath -- an asthma-like response she has had from kittenhood from time to time.  One look at their body language told us what had happened.  Tiny was in the way of Baby's progressing along the path, and she wasn't giving any ground.  As we approached, to pluck Baby up out of harm's way, Tiny hissed and snarled venomously at the both of us, precipitating further gasping. Once Baby was safely inside and out of her path, Tiny ran back inside, and both headed for their favorite napping spots to catch up on their z's. Don't fence me in!

And speaking of cats and power outages, we're remiss in not calling attention to a wondrous Carnival of the Cats this week at Music and Cats -- LOVE the name of that blog. Go there and have a ball (of yarn).