The hubby and I carved our pumpkins yesterday. After the initial flurry of interest because we were in the kitchen, both kitties went off to find better things to do.

I left my pumpkin (classically carved with triangle eyes and nose, jaggedy smile mouth) on top of the chair by the windowsill. Greg's (goofily carved) pumpkin went on the table by other window.

A few hours later we were in the living room, getting ready to go out when Xena spied something by the window and started slowly sneaking up on it. We thought at first she was stalking falling leaves because they have been doing that all weekend and have really gotten quite worked up about the whole autumn thing. But she was stalking my pumpkin. Slowly... she crept across the living room floor, as close to the ground as possible. As she got closer to the chair, her line of sight was blocked. She then assumed the gopher position- reared up on her hind legs with front paws dangling in front of her. She stayed there for about a minute checking out the intruder.

The sight may have been too much for her because she then ran away.

I've never seen anything like it! Greg thinks it's because it looks like a face and she recognizes the face pattern. My clever little one.

Well, not so clever, I guess. Later, my pumpkin ended up on the floor with the candle lit inside. After much sniffing about she realized that she could reach in the eyes to poke at the bright thing inside. No burnt paws, though, because mean old mommy yelled at her.

Copyright © Chris Vander Rhodes
October 26, 1999