Glancing at the Stars

So I really miss Prospect Park in the springtime and I miss saying hi to my buddies & eating bagels off the street during the walks around our old neighborhood, but one thing this house has that our old apartment doesn't is a deck. Ooohhh, I really like the deck. It's a few steps away from the bedroom & I can just walk out there (so long as someone leaves the door cracked open), take a few sips out of the special Buddha-shaped water dish and chill. (Sometimes the water spouts up like a fountain--it's pretty neat. Thelma & Louise don't like when I drink out of it, though. Since when can't I have a drink of water?)

There are some crazy big trees in people's backyards, so it's nice & shady back there. Louise put down some weird plastic interlocking grate-like things so we don't damage the tarred surface, but that's okay because my toes don't get stuck in the holes & it keeps the surface from getting hot. Thelma put some plants & flowers out there and she got *really* mad when I chewed up her blueberry plant--how could I know it was anything special? It was just a twig planted in some dirt. Boy, was she upset. I didn't know it was any big deal--I pick up sticks & chew them all the time! She yelled at me, too.

The best thing about the deck is sleeping on it at night. Because it's way darker here than it is in Brooklyn, you can see lots of stars through the trees & it's really quiet back there. The backyard light comes on when a squirrel or some other intruder enters the backyard and I have to tell it to get off our property, but no one appreciates that. Matter of fact, sometimes I'll get yanked inside just for doing my job! Yeah, that bothers me. But usually they leave me alone & I can go to sleep on my cushion, under the stars. It's sweet. I could do this year 'round. It'll be great in the winter, w/the snow falling softly on me. Ohhhh yeah. (Nestle's such a chicken, she usually stays inside w/the people. But one night she stayed out there w/me and snored. It was so nice sleeping outside, I didn't even mind.)