The Dog Days of Summer apparently started around here right after the spring rains stopped.  Nearly every day is hazy, hot and humid, so we've been taking the cats out earlier than usual to take advantage of the cooler hours just after sunrise.  Even though we made this decision without consulting them first, we know our Good Cats well enough to be confident that they wouldn't mind it one bit, and their happy reaction tells us we were right.

   A few mornings ago, I took Kelly and Nicky outside while Lizzie waited for Pat, who was harnessing Caitie-Belle at the back door.  Nicky needs close supervision because he tends to chew on plants we don't want him to chew.  Words have no effect on him, and picking him up and setting him down somewhere else usually doesn't work either, since our determined little Gatito Perfecto turns around and goes right back again.  Pat now brings a spray bottle outside to squirt him when she finds him where he doesn't belong.  Even so, if he's intent on munching something, one squirt isn't always enough to make him move.

   A harnessed Caitie-Belle hopped down the back steps to the sidewalk, followed by Lizzie and then Pat, who was carrying a bucket of water from our hard-working basement dehumidifier to pour on the parched garden.  I pointed toward Nicky, who was only nibbling grass, and asked Pat with a straight face, "So you gave up on the spray bottle?"  Playing along, she flicked a few drops at me as she walked by and replied, "How do you know it's for him?"