A cat is a puzzle for which there is no solution..
By now you must all know that one of my favorite topics is Brutus. I can write and talk about him forever. You see most of you probably have children ...we don't..... all I have in that respect is Brutus and I adore this kitty with all my heart.
The same way you will do anything to protect your child I would also do for Brutus. When we got Brutus Arvid was very doubtful about the whole idea of having a cat. You see he never had a pet in his entire life....sad but true. Looking at them today one would never think so. Arvid is crazy about our kitty and pampers him sometimes more than I do....almost.When we bought The Lil Red in Eleuthera we always had in mind bringing Brutus along with us. He completes us.....as Arvid says we are a family.
Well I was a bit scared of the thought because he is only an indoor cat and here we ran the risk of Brutus getting out and just getting lost. Arvid and I came up with the idea of building a little extension to the house...we call it Brutus' hallway. What it does is that it gave us an extra protection against Brutus getting out. We now have 2 doors we need to open to get into and out of the house. We get into Brutus' hallway. Close that door then open the main door to the house. In this case if Brutus get out he is in this hallway and the door to the outside is closed. It has worked great so far. 
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Having Brutus here with us also keeps me busy. The first time he was here he was very stressed out....you see Brutus is a city cat.....back home in Florida he is used to condo living and he loves it. There he has his routines and his favorite sleeping spots, plus he has his own bedroom.....yep the laundry room.....from very little we trained him to go to sleep in his room by 11pm same time as we do. Now every night by 11pm he just waits for the TV to go off and is ready to go to sleep. All we have to do is say "to the room" and Brutus runs to his room. In the mornings we get him up at 7:30 or whatever time we wake up. Not a problem.
The problem is that here in Eleuthera his routined changed. He still has his own room...the office. Much bigger than the one in Florida but for some reason he does not sleep through the entire night. Still goes to bed at 11pm...is waiting for Arvid actually.....but every morning he is awake by 4:30 to 5:50 crying and clawing to get out of his room. He has even learnt how to open his bedroom door and also ours. We have now devised a way in which Brutus cannot turn the door handle. First we padded the door form inside (you can see a rug on the inside of the door) so that the noise from the scratching is dimmed. We then found a stick and we use that to anchor the door handle from the outside making difficult for him to open the door. So far this is working but the clawing and crying continues. I get up by 5:50 most days so that I can get him out of his room and so that he does not disturb Arvid. Arvid gets too crabby if he does not get his sleep.
Right now it is 5:30 and I am awake with Brutus...I don't mind he is such a good kitty. I brush him, play with him and in a few mintues he and I will join Arvid in bed for a few more hours of sleep. 
Brutus does not have a problem during the day time. He has completely adapted to this Island Living and he also loves it. Sleeps most of the days or just watches the birds and butterflies from his little condo on the inside. He also loves to sleep on that condo.....he like most cats can sleep all day long and he also has his favorite spots here. The challenge remains the early morning hours.....still working on it. If you have some suggestions they are appreciated......well now it's back to bed. Looking forward to what today holds....each day has been very rewarding and very fullfilling We have blended into the laid back lifestyle and it will be sad leaving it and having to go back to the grind of the city life......but that's not until Friday. Still have many more days to live the Island Life.......
No matter what we do we are having fun as you can tell from the pictures. Most were taken yesterday at Sky Beach. The drinks were nice and cold, the band played good music, the pool was deliciously refreshing.......and the company was the best....Arvid & and I. Even my feet were relaxed.....
Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow
until next time....
