THE BUMBLE BEE by Nesta Jenner

On sunny afternoons Carrots, a male orange tiger cat, liked to sit on his favourite piece of cat furniture, a Cat Tree, and gaze at the birds flying about in the trees outside. A breeze came through the screen door and fanned his fur. Feeling lazy he settled down for a snooze. Then his ears began to twitch, for he could hear a buzzing noise. “What’s that?” he thought to himself, and looked all around the room, but he could not see where the buzzing noise was coming from. He tried to ignore it but it kept him awake. So finally he roused himself, jumped down from his tree, and started to search for the source of the noise.

It didn’t take Carrots too long to find that the buzzing noise seemed to be coming from the direction of his Kitty Condo. With great caution he peered inside one of the boxes, and to his surprise found a bumble bee buzzing around in the corner. He put up a paw and patted it gently, and the bee flew out into the room. Just then his human came through to go outside. When the screen door was opened the bee flew out into the garden. “Perhaps I can get some sleep now” thought Carrots, and he climbed back into his Cat Tree and settled down once again for a snooze.

SPRING CLEANING by Nesta Jenner

Carrots sat at the top of the stairs. He was bored. Normally he would be playing in his Kitty Condo in the sun room, but today his humans had closed the door. ‘You can’t go in there’, they had said. ‘We are spring cleaning.’ So Carrots sat on the stairs and heard the splash of water and the scrape of furniture being moved about.. After a while the humans stopped for lunch, and happily they made a fuss of him. They put some tasty food and some fresh water in his bowls, and stroked and petted him. Then they disappeared into the sun room, and Carrots went back to the top of the stairs to have a snooze.

When later he woke, from a lovely dream, he noticed the sun room door was wide open. He jumped down the stairs and peered in to see what a difference ‘spring cleaning’ had made. ‘Come on in’ said my humans, ‘and see what is here for you.’

In he walked, and looked around, and then he saw it. A beautiful new Cat Tree stood in the corner of the room. Naturally Carrots had to go over and try it out. What fun it was. He could leap from branch to branch, run up and down and use it as a scratching post. What more could a cat ask for. He was in heaven. “If this is what spring cleaning is all about I’m glad my humans tried it”. Finally, he became so tired he fell asleep among the branches of his new Cat Tree.

CAT STEPS by Nesta Jenner

Hi,  I am Ballou a spotted tabby cat, and I live in a humans’ house with two other cats named Carrots and Eve. I am quite old and not able to leap around like I used to. Which is a shame, as I love to sit at the window and watch all that goes on outside. Sadly I am now too big to sit on the windowsill, so I have to see what I can from the armchair. My humans were talking about me one day, and I heard them mention cat furniture.    Surprise, surprise, a few days later a parcel arrived. Inside was a beautiful set of Cat Steps. They placed them up against the wall, so that I can easily climb up and see through the window. How lovely that is, just like old times. Today two birds were in the bush outside, so for fun I tapped the glass with my paw. They looked at me, but they knew I could not harm them from inside. I can see the butterflies and bees on the flowers whenever I want to now, and watch the chipmunks dart in and out of the holes in the wall. My humans are so kind. These Cat Steps have made such a difference. At night time I like to sleep in our other cat furniture, a Kitty Condo. To help me my humans move the Cat Steps over to it so that I have no problem climbing in any more. I may be old but I am now able to enjoy every day.

STRING AND FEATHER by Nesta Jenner

Hi, I am Eve a marbled tabby cat. I am a shy cat, but I like to spend part of my day leaping around on the pieces of cat furniture my humans bought. Actually I play with everything. They test me in so many ways. One of the things they tempt me with is a piece of string. They wave it in the air for me to catch, but try as I might I just cannot get hold of it. When I think I have it tight between my paws I find it just slips through. So many times I have tried. They squiggle it along the floor so that I will pounce on it, but I am only able to catch it when they give in and the game is over. Today they gave me a new plaything, a feather. Soft and white it lay on the polished wood floor. When I approached it, it flew into the air. When I tried to catch it, it somehow floated away. I finally managed to trap it when it landed on the Kitty Condo. Holding it in my mouth I carried it over to Ballou, my house mate. She was sitting on the top of the Cat Steps in the sunshine, his favourite spot, but he was sleepy and not interested. So I took it over to our other piece of cat furniture, a Cat Tree, and climbed up into it’s branches for a snooze.

INSIDE AND OUT by Nesta Jenner

Hi, I am Eve a marbled tabby cat. One day I was sitting on the Cat Steps, looking out of the window, minding my own business, when what should I see? A large black cat came wandering on to our front lawn. Must be new round here for I have never seen him before. He walked a good way over the grass before he saw me. He stopped, and glanced my way, then took a few steps nearer, so as to see me better. I pawed the window and put my nose on the glass. We stared at one another for quite a while and he waved his tail a couple of times. I was thinking  "What is he doing out there?  Why isn’t he inside like me?" and I expect he was thinking,  "Why aren’t you out here like me?" Still, I am happy where I am, looking out, watching him. He sat down and started to clean himself.  A black bird landed further along the lawn and I thought he would chase after it, but he didn’t. "How silly" I thought, he could have had some fun, but he just carried on cleaning himself. Then he stood up, came closer to the window, waved his tail, then wandered off out of sight. We don’t get many visitors to our lawn. Sometimes the squirrels come, but they are mostly in the trees at the back of the house. Not much else going on out there at the moment, so I think I will go and get myself something to eat.

SOCKS by Nesta Jenner

Carrots, the male orange tiger cat my house mate, came over and said "Look what our human is doing" I am Eve a marbled tabby and I had followed Carrots down stairs to the utility room. There we saw our human putting small washing items and things they call socks on a rail. There were a lot of them.

"I think our cat furniture would look nice decorated with some of those."  said Carrots. "Let us wait until their out and then get busy". So that is what we did.

When all was quiet in the house Carrots and Eve started taking the socks one by one upstairs. They put some on the couch, where Ballou, the other cat in our house lay watching the birds out of the window. Carrots put a few on the Kitty Condo while I put some on the perches of the Cat Tree. Our cat furniture had never looked better. We felt sure our humans would be pleased when they came home for they often put cloths and things on their furniture.

After a while Carrots started to jump up, trying to pull some of the socks off the Cat Tree, so I pulled some down from the Kitty Condo. Soon they were in a mess all over the floor.   

Before we had time to do anything else the front door opened, our humans had returned. Sometimes what seemed like a good idea to us wasn’t always greeted with the same enthusiasm by our humans so Carrots and Eve went and hid in the Kitty Condo. Carrot and Eve knew they wouldn’t blame Ballou for she was fast asleep.

LOOK AT THE MOON by Nesta Jenner

Tixy is a tiny tortoiseshell kitten. She was growing more adventurous in the daytime, but best of all she loved to creep about at night when most things in the house were mysterious and in the dark. One night she sat on the cat furniture by the window and saw a bright orb of light in the sky outside. She called to Kit, her housemate, an older black male cat, to come over to look at it. "Oh that. That is the moon" Kit said, and walked away. 

Tixy gazed in wonder at the moon in all it's brightness and splendour. She thought it was wonderful. How upset she was when the dawn came and the night and the moon went away.   Each night afterwards Tixy would sit by the window and wait for the moon to appear. After a couple of nights Tixy noticed that the moon was becoming smaller. "Quick Kit, come here! Come and look!  Someone has taken some of the moon away. It is not as big as it was when I first saw it." Kit came and looked up at the moon and said, "That's OK. It will be alright" and he wandered off. Tixy was sure it was not OK, for each night the moon grew smaller and smaller. By the end of the week the moon had disappeared altogether. 

Tixy was heartbroken. It had been such a wonderful thing to see.  She looked out for the next few nights but only stars twinkled in the dark sky. Then, the next time Tixy gazed up into the  heavens, she saw something new. A thin arc of light had appeared among the stars.  "I will look out for that each night, instead" thought Tixy. And so she did, and surprise, surprise, each night it grew a little bigger. Nights went by and Tixy soon realised the light in the sky was the moon coming back. She was so excited. "Kit. Kit. Come and look. The moon has come back." "I told you it was OK" said Kit, and he walked away, leaving Tixy gazing once more at the bright and beautiful moon.