My Hidey Holes

Good Morning!  Smitty here.  I was just lying here in the sun thinking about stuff.  I'm a fairly deep thinker.

I tried to get Gracie to come outside with me, but that cat is so freaking lazy.  Geez!

Anyway...I know my mom is fond of showing you her favorite places in the garden, but I started thinking it was high time for me to show you the places I like to hang out.  My mom was kind enough to let me borrow her good camera.  I promised I'd be careful with it.  

So just come along, and I'll show you some of my favorite hidey holes.

Hidey holes must be carefully chosen because they purrtect a guy from purredators. But that's not all.  They are a good place to nap and to play sneak 'em up when feet walk by.  This is my best hidey hole under this dwarf maple tree, right here.  I marked the door for you.  A good hidey hole is hard to see when you're standing on the outside.

You have to get down kind of low to get inside, but I'm purretty short, so it's okay.  Mind your tail...don't want to bump it on anything.  Tree sap's a bummer.

And look at that!  Sometimes I take my afternoon nap here, and sometimes I invite my newest mousie friend to come in here with me.  Sometimes my mom's feet walk by and I run out and startle her.

She's purretty funny.  She nearly trips over herself trying not to step on me.

But yesterday, I discovered another hidey hole.  Just follow me, and I'll show you where it is.

See that Weeping Norway Spruce over there?  (My mom didn't know the name of it until recently.  You guys did though.  You guys are so smart.  I think that's one of the reasons my mom hangs out with you.)

Anyway...there's the door.  It's a tall door.  I can keep my tail erect when I go through.

And when you get inside...there are two rooms!  This is the living room.

This is the bedroom.

I'm thinking of doing a little redecorating.  You know those places where hunters live, and they have stuffed deer heads hanging on the walls?  Well, I'm thinking of getting some mouse heads mounted and hanging them in the bedroom.  I'm still considering how to decorate the living room.  Maybe some sort of feather bouquet or something.  What do you think?

Here, I tried to take a picture of myself with the camera.  It didn't work out very well.  My paws aren't long enough.

Anyway...here's another hidey hole, under this here rhododendron.  Now just look at the view.  I'll bet you can figure out why I like it.

Here...let's go inside, and you can see what I see.  It's a great place to spy on the birds.

This rock here in the next picture used to be a grrrrreat place to watch the birds until my dad cut the tree branches down.  Now I'm just sitting there in plain sight, and it makes the birds nervous.

The birds don't like pawtying with me very much.  Their fur is kind of loosely attached, I'm saying. 

This is my mom's greenhouse.  Sometimes I go inside, but it's kinda scary in there.

For one thing, it is the lair of the dreaded water viper (Agkistrodon priscivorus for all you Latin types).

It appears to be sleeping right now, so I think I can get a close-up of its fearsome fangs.

Yeah, I purretty much give it a wide berth.

Now, here's something else I noticed about myself while I was cleaning my toe jam today.  All four of my feet have four pink toes and one black toe. 

Weird, huh?  My mom says that black toe is where the "bad" comes out.  And I say, "Bad?  Moi?  Whatever could you be referring to?"  

I think she might be talking about the time I brought the robin in...or maybe it was the mousie...or the gopher...or...hm...