We want to lodge a protest! Our lisa-mom is keeping us trapped and not letting us have any fun! And then she taunts us!

Oh, wait! You’re probably wondering who this is. Well, we are the Travelers. And I am Treven – the only boy in the litter. You ought to feel sorry for me, surrounded by all these silly sisters of mine. I am the biggest of all of us and I’m very adventurous. And I’m the one who is most mad at lisa-mom.

You see we live in one little room. Okay, it’s not that little, but we have seen how much there is to explore outside this room and we want to go out there. Our room has lots of toys and there is a kitten condo, a little cat tree, and a tent in here for us. We even have a scratching post that is just our size! Someday we might even take the time to check them out thoroughly. But if I had my way, I’d be running up and down the hall to other rooms. I might even go all the way down the stairs and see the rooms down there. I think there might be even more fun stuff there. I did follow Aunt Shira down two steps last night, but she’s too fast for me to keep up. And those stairs are sorta big. It’s a lot of work to climb back up them.

Lisa-mom puts a gate in our door, though, and we can’t get out of our room unless she lets us. She usually lets us come out for a little bit in the morning and some in the evening. I’ve tried chewing through the gate – that didn’t work at all. I tried to climb it, but I’m not very good at climbing yet. The very worst thing is she stands on the other side of the gate and taunts us! Oh, she sounds like our nice lisa-mom, but it is so mean of her to not let us out!

I’m not the only who likes to get out and explore, though. Megwyn has made it all the way into lisa-mom’s bedroom and bathroom, too. Ken-dad calls Megwyn by a bad name when he see her – he says it’s because she was born right by the stadium where the Broncos play and her name is another name for donkey (which is what Ken-dad calls the Broncos when he wants to tease lisa-mom.) lisa-mom says that’s not a nice name for a little girl and I agree! Well, except when Meggie is biting me. Then I’m tempted to call her the same name.

Kalira is another explorer. She, too, has made it to lisa-mom’s room. Every time lisa-mom takes down the gate, Kalira runs out into the hall – even when lisa-mom is sitting down on our floor playing with us. Kalira says she’s going to take advantage of every chance she gets to be free. I don’t know about that – I like being with lisa-mom, especially when she plays with us with our little teasers.

The one who really wants to be around lisa-mom is Felara. Felara is not quite as crazy as the rest of us, but when she sees lisa-mom, she jumps over the side of our bed and runs straight to her. Then she purrs loud when lisa-mom pets her. She even puts up with lisa-mom picking her up without stopping purring. Felara says if lisa-mom would leave that darn gate down, she’d follow her everywhere – she might even sleep with her at night if only she could climb up on the big bed!

The last of my sisters is Gwena. Gwennie is the littlest of my sisters, but boy, you’d never know it! She is a wild girl! She runs and plays all the time. She loves to hide under the big bed in our room and attack us from there. Unlike Felara, Gwennie hates to be held. She starts wiggling as soon as anyone picks her up. She thinks all those kisses lisa-mom gives us are a big bother. She likes to attack our little mice toys and she just loves our crinkle balls. Lisa-mom better get us some more of them ‘cause Gwennie has about chewed them up. And the rest of us like them, too.

We heard lisa-mom say she was going away for a while. Our big sister Kimbry’s mom, Sondra, is going to come take care of us. Maybe she’ll forget and leave the gate down. And if she doesn’t, we’ll just have to keep working on our climbing skills. One of these days that gate isn’t going to keep us in and we’ll get even with lisa-mom for being so mean. We’re not quite sure how, but we’ll think of something -- maybe bite her toes in the night when she’s asleep!

(--> Cat Tails, Pg28)

© 2003 lisa s vasa