Fred’s restlessness this winter accounts for his several trips to visit friends in the next river valley. Returning with his two ghost cat companions, Jasper and Alice, seems to have been his way of entertaining himself. I was a bit worried about him, however, because he didn’t seem to be his old self—no tricks played on us for the entire season. Riding down the icicles sliding from our roof entertained him and the two cats for the month of February, but now that the ice had melted (finally!), I can feel his desperation hovering around the house. Marley says Jasper and Alice are also bored and he’s worried that they will find some way of disrupting life in the house by targeting him, maybe pulling his tail while he sleeps or bending his whiskers. I found an eyebrow whisker bent at a ninety degree angle the other day, but he would say nothing about how it got that way. I suspect Alice might have been responsible, but Marley’s not going to admit that a little gal ghost cat bested him in any way.

Hubby and I ware looking forward to spring and have even talked about our garden beds and what vegetable we’d like to plant this year. Of course, around here, one can’t really put anything in the ground until June 1. We’ve had frosts and snow the middle of May some years.

There is excitement afoot, however. This past week saw our contractor arrive to begin work on the bedroom/bathroom addition. Unfortunately, the footers for the deck meant they had to destroy our pond. We’ll have to relocate it, but that means we can do it even better than it was. The footers for the room itself were poured on Thursday, covered, and left to cure until tomorrow. I thought Marley might have been frightened about all the noise outside, but he sat in his fluffy-puffy bed on the couch and watched contentedly. He might have been showing off his nonchalant attitude for Alice’s sake, however.

The weekend without the construction gang here has been quiet, and with the freezing cold temperatures gone and only a dusting of the white stuff, we may have experienced the end of the snow turning to icicles. I spotted some green grass in the ruts made by the cement truck and a smattering of the plants that once surrounded the pond. But we seem to have entered the muddy season where everything once so beautiful and snowy white is now dirty brown.

I was expecting Fred and his cat companions to approach me to say they were leaving for another trip. But there has only been silence. Even Marley was puzzled that Alice seemed to be leaving him alone. Then the other day I heard something upstairs that didn’t make sense. I rushed upstairs to see what was happening. My white noise machine that I use to drown out the sound of the CPAP hubby uses at night was on, although I was certain I turned it off when I went down for my morning coffee. Well, my brain has not been working well lately, so I turned it off and thought no more about it until the next morning when it happened again. Hubby also said he came upstairs one afternoon and found the machine on. Some of you may remember how fond of electricity and electronics Fred is. He turned on our electric fireplace numerous times and tried to start our truck on one occasion. I guess now he’s discovered my sound machine. Once his antics are brought to light as with the fireplaces and the truck, Fred usually stops those behaviors. The sound machine has been silent for the past few days.

Poor Fred, found out again. What will his next trick be? I hope he leaves the construction guys alone. How could I explain to them that the ghost and his companions have a sense of humor and like to play tricks on humans, and on cats. Let’s hope he doesn’t decide it would be fun to drive a backhoe.