It’s evident that Biscuit’s injuries have mended and her energy has returned as demonstrated in her latest wild adventures!

“While quietly reading the Cottage Grove Sentinel newspaper,” said Linda, “I heard Biscuit’s purr-culier muffled meow (mouth full of something crawly, winged, feathered or furred that I didn’t want to touch) announcing, ‘Mom look! I have a gift for you!’”

Linda jumped up to make sure Biscuit would not release any “wiggling somethings” in her house, but she was too late. Biscuit “presented” her with an uninjured squirrel and it went “nuts”.  It took off running! Its adrenaline was running overtime as it raced into her living room.

“Biscuit took chase after my ‘gift’,” said Linda, “The commotion caught the attention of Biscuit’s calico sister, Missy.

Now I had one running squirrel, two chasing cats, and me following up in the rear into the living room. ‘Funniest Home Videos’ would have had a field day with our ‘episode’!”

Linda recently had her living room carpet replaced with laminated floors, which has no traction for speeding pets and wild life! It made for a fabulous "Slip and Slide" with feet flying like a three-legged tap dancer.

“Calamity reigned, as I tried to get the cats,” said Linda, “the cats tried to get the squirrel, and the squirrel tried to get away!  I grabbed a towel to catch, hold and carry the squirrel - but he had other things in mind.”  

The focus of everyone’s attention sped between the cats and over to the brick fireplace, which gave the squirrel solid traction. He scooted up the fireplace, leapt onto the china hutch, then dropped behind it to a "safe" zone - upsetting the cats’ plans!

Their "chase toy" was now securely behind the hutch, and it’s written somewhere in stone, "No one and no cat can reach anything behind the hutch"!

With out a whis-purr, the cats telepathically took up guard posts on both sides of the hutch.  

Fast forward hours: Biscuit was cat napping when Missy heard the squirrel climb down the fireplace bricks.  The chase was on again!

The squirrel saw Missy so he raced around the corner. Linda was “... hoping he ran out the open front door.”  But instead, the squirrel headed upstairs and ran nose-to-nose with her third kitty, Kiki, a 14-year-old black cat, who was sleeping on the landing.

To avoid a cat-astrophe, the squirrel dived off the landing, while a bewildered Kiki tried to figure out if this is an exciting dream or fur-real. Linda then saw the end of the squirrel’s tail between the rails, but before she could help the poor squirrel, it ran down the stairs. Linda lost sight of it and fur-vently hoped that it ran out the front door.  

Instead, the squirrel ran into her open coat closet. Her excited cat posse corralled it, taking up vigilant paw-sitions.

Linda then had a brilliant idea!  She removed the cats and sprinkled a trail of nuts and seeds from the closet to the open front door ... and squirrel freedom! Unfortunately, the only ones that saw the open door were the mosquitoes, who joined the crazy household and landed on Linda’s arms for an uninvited snack. 

Linda closed the door, solving one of her two "guest" problems. Exhausted, thankfully, female, felines and squirrel slept peacefully that night.

“The next morning,” said Linda, “while drinking a cup of coffee, I was wondering what the day would bring when I heard our over night guest chattering. 

I ran to his rescue and chased the cats away. Then I used a broom to carefully check the closet floor for the squirrel. 

Suddenly, I remembered that squirrels climb trees and it could just as easily be sitting up high looking at me.  I quickly backed away, opened the front door, and checked the Oregon “nutty food” Trail before returning to my coffee.

Shortly thereafter, the squirrel safely sprinted outside. I closed the door, wishing our little visitor well, and hoped that was the last we’d see of him.”

Surely, the squirrel thought the same about Linda’s ‘crazy cat house’!
 
Biscuit, who never led a boring life, must have missed all the activity, because the next morning she carried in two birds in her mouth at the same time, and a mouse the following morning!

Well, that explains how “poor” little Biscuit is doing - back to her old kitty self!  Paws-ibly her mysterious earlier injuries were from a neighborhood mob of squirrels, mice and birds giving her some of her own medicine!

As for Linda, she has lived through enough ‘crazy cat’ adventures to pen a series of children’s books, “Biscuit’s Adventures”!

CAT FACTS:
Each cat ear contains 20 muscles that work similar to radar. They pinpoint and locate what the feline is hearing. Their ears appear to twitch as they rotate listening to noises that are im-purr-ceptible to human ears.

DOG FACTS:
Randy, author of "From Crappy, to Happy" as seen in the movie, "Eat, Pray, Love" and a Tips ‘n' Tales reader in California writes, "It is not safe to give dogs stuffed toys intended for children.  Children's toys often contain flame retardants/chemicals to retard bacterial growth that can be toxic to dogs who chew or swallow them."    

Mary Ellen's Silver Persians swam their way into readers and viewer's hearts! They have appeared in International magazines and newspapers around the world. (France, England, Canada, China, Germany, USA, etc.)

Also, several National and International TV shows featured the swimming felines teaching pet-water-safety.