C required a nap because she didn’t get to bed until after midnight. Mango kept her awake.

Initially the space allotted to the kittens was Cs room, the short hallway, and her bathroom. This morning however we expanded it to the office/classroom. The end of the hallway was blocked off by a gate with a blanket over it so the little one could not pass through. It worked great all day – and then Blueberry escaped when I accidentally left it open and after I closed it Mango leaped over it, numerous times. So we began to kitten-proof the family room and expanded their territory. Of course they were still interested in going beyond and really wanted to get past our new makeshift cardboard gate at the bottom of the stairs.

The kittens really warmed up to us and the space. They also really enjoyed being near C as she tried to complete her schoolwork. Tussock used to do very similar things.

A storm was coming in near bedtime, but we didn’t think much of it. At 1 am Willie woke up to use the restroom and had a thunderstorm warning about large hail. He was concerned about our vehicles, so woke C up and the plan was to drive to the nearby covered gas station. As we were pulling out I asked him about the chance of tornados but C and I started to drive our cars around the block. He quickly called and said we should just stay home. C and I turned around and by the time we got back around the block the rain was coming down in torrents and the wind was whipping. We hurried inside and my shirt was soaked between the car and the house. Of course Willie wanted to watch the storm – the wind had already blown our smoker and grill across part of the deck, they had only stopped because of the deck furniture – but he quickly realized going down to the bottom floor was the better idea. Being near big windows in a storm, while cool to see, is not the safest idea. We were downstairs for less than ten minutes when the tornado sirens went off. Initially we went into the laundry room with the kittens but decided the closet under our stairs was perhaps safer. C and I had to quickly get a few extra boxes out so we could squeeze in. When the radar showed the storm was past we came out, repacked the closet, and went back to bed. More rain and wind came through, but nothing like earlier.

Needless to say we were all a tad tired this morning (September 2).