Cleo's big adventure

Our cat, Cleo is pretty much a spoiled thing. She lives inside and never steps foot outside. Occasionally she tries to get out the door when we have it open.
With all the snow we got last week, Bob was having to plow a path out to his workshop. We thought that since the snow was so deep, it wouldn't hurt to let Cleo in the walkway, since there really wasn't anyplace for her to go to.
Here are a few pictures of her outside in the snow:

She didn't really know what to make of it. I thought she would come right back in, but she just sat there, looked around and sniffed at the snow. After a few minutes, we took her back in. That's enough adventuring for one day!

Guest Blogger

Hello. My name is Cleo and I am the owner of Mari and her family. I am making a brief stop here to let you all know of the torment that I am being subjected to in this household. As you can see in the picture below, I am really quite beautiful and as the head of this household I deserve to be treated with respect.
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Here I am in one of my favorite places. I really need a lot of rest and prefer to be left alone unless I ask for attention.
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This is Mari's daughter Heather. Don't let that innocent looking smile fool you. She is really quite bossy with me. She doesn't let me get away with much. I should confess that I do have a small psychological problem. I am somewhat of a nervous cat and I tend to lick my belly. I have licked it enough that sometimes, there isn't much hair on it. They made me go to the vet and get checked and I really didn't appreciate that. I stopped for a while after that, because I didn't want to go back. However, lately things are kind of messed up around here. Mari has Bob working on that kitchen and things are being moved around. They even moved my food bowl! Well, I have to calm myself in some way, so I must admit that I've taken up that nasty licking habit again. This has Heather all upset with me. You wouldn't believe what she is doing to me.
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Yes - she is making me wear a dress. You can't see it very well here, but it covers my belly and now I can't lick it. I tell you - it is completely humiliating! When she puts it on me, I try to hide and I hate to even move in it. If my cat friends from next door would see me I would just die of embarrassment. I'll let you in on a secret though - I have discovered how to get out of it. If no one is looking I can do it quite quickly.
Now you know what life is like for me here. Don't you agree that this is a terrible indignity for a cat of my high status?

An afternoon with Cleo

Cleo is our cat. She loves it when I open the front door, so she can sit and look out the glass door. At times she will lay on on rug and relax, but usually she is quite alert, watching whatever is going on outside. You can see that she is intently watching something. The something this time is the neighbors cat who was wandering in our yard.

I heard her batting the door and I found the two cats, face to face with only the glass separating them. She wasn't upset, just wanted to get out.

After the cat left, another temptation came by. If you look closely you will see that a chipmunk is sitting on the edge of the porch. This was even more upsetting than the cat had been. Now she really wanted to get outside!

The chipmunk stayed there for about 15 minutes before putting Cleo out of her misery. As I watched her, it struck me that we are often like our cat. We keep her inside to keep her safe. We have had two cats get killed because they were outside. She doesn't understand that it is in her best interest to stay in. She wants to get out and play with the neighbor cat or run after a chipmunk. In the same way, God gives us boundaries and sometimes says no to things we want. We may not understand at the time, or possibly never in this life. However, we can be sure that God does know what is best for us and that his way is always in our best interest.