It’s Zaturday, the day we (Ziggy and Zorro) take over Mommy’s blog.

Ziggy here. Zorro and I stay pretty busy. We spend a lot of time keeping ourselves clean.

We have to keep the critters in line, too. In Florida, we stand guard to make sure the lizards don’t come inside.

In North Carolina, we don’t see any lizards, but the squirrels are constantly misbehaving. Mommy and Aunt Kim hung bird feeders outside our catio so Zorro and I and our two cousins can watch the birds. But the squirrels hang on the wire and get into them. Yesterday, Zorro and I weren’t out there to stand guard, and this is what Mommy and Daddy saw while sitting at the dining room table:

The squirrels here will do anything to get to the bird seed. Sometimes they stretch between the screen and feeder and eat it right out of the tray. Other times they pull the feeders close to the screen and dump the seed onto our bar.

Zorro and I don’t like them messing up our catio like this, and we chase them away if they try to get too close. We take our job as guard-cats very seriously. But we can’t stand guard 24/7. All that hard work makes us tired, so we have to get in our naps.

Zorro and I work hard to protect our area, but Mommy told us about a cat that was in charge of a whole town. It was time to elect a mayor for the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska. The manager at the general store picked a ginger kitten from a box of unwanted cats and named him Stubbs, because he had no tail. Stubbs ended up winning the election as a write-in candidate, because the people didn’t like the humans on the ballot. Stubbs kept the position for twenty years, his entire life. Since he was honest and never raised taxes, he was pretty popular, even though he insisted on drinking catnip-flavored water out of wineglasses and was often guilty of sleeping on the job.

Zorro and I have been hearing a bunch of stuff lately about an election for president coming up soon. If Stubbs can be mayor, I wonder if I could be President. I bet Mommy and Daddy would vote for me. Zorro would, too. If I was President, I would make sure that all kitties had a good home, a nice soft bed and all the kitty food they could possibly want.

Ziggy for President! Hmm, that belongs on a bumper sticker!

It’s Zaturday, the day we (Ziggy and Zorro) take over Mommy’s blog.

Ziggy here. Zorro and I are lucky kitties. We have two homes! We live in Florida with Mommy and Daddy, but every month, Mommy takes us to North Carolina to Grandma and Aunt Kim’s house. We like both places, because we get lots of love and good kitty food, whether we’re in North Carolina or Florida.

The trip is really long. (Mommy says it’s more than 600 miles.) Zorro and I don’t know what miles are, but we’re in the car all day. Even though the trip is long, we can always tell when we’re almost there. Usually I’m lying on the seat and Zorro is curled up on Mommy’s lap, but as soon as Mommy turns onto her and Daddy’s road in Florida or Aunt Kim and Grandma’s road in North Carolina, we know. Zorro stands up in Mommy’s lap and looks out the window, and I get up on the thing between the seats.

Mommy always laughs and asks us how we can tell we’re almost there. Zorro and I can’t really explain it. We just know. Cats have good sense of direction. We also pay attention and have a good memory. That helps lost cats find their way home. When Mommy was a little girl, she had a cat named Bootsie. (Bootsie was black like us, except she had white paws.) When Mommy’s family moved to a different house, they took Bootsie with them, but then Bootsie disappeared. Mommy said six weeks later, the people who bought the old house called because Bootsie showed up there. She had walked all the way there from a different city, just to go back to her old home. (Of course, Mommy and Grandma and Grandpa went and got her.)

No one really knows how we do it. Some people think cats can sense the Earth’s magnetic fields. Others say we have iron in our inner ears and skin that works like a natural compass. Zorro and I aren’t sure about all that. We just know which way home is and when we’re almost there.

Mommy really doesn’t understand it, because she doesn’t have any sense of direction at all. If she didn’t have that thing on her phone telling her where to go when we travel, who knows where we’d end up? But we love her anyway.

It’s Zaturday, the day we (Ziggy and Zorro) take over Mommy’s blog.

Zorro here. We have the best Mommy and Aunt Kim in the whole wide world! Look what they’re building for us!

Actually, the roof and railing were already there, but Ziggy and I weren’t allowed to go out there, because Mommy was afraid we would jump off the balcony. So they closed it all in with wire. They even tore off the old handrail and used bigger boards to give us more room to lie up there. It was still pretty crowded, though. See? My leg is hanging over the edge.

Even that was okay, but when I stood up and tried to turn around, I fell off! So Mommy and Aunt Kim made another board to go up there. This one’s a lot bigger. Look how much room Ziggy and I have now.

In the middle of our new room, Mommy and Aunt Kim built a wall with a door. Our cousins Kassie and Blackie will be staying on one side, and Ziggy and I will be on the other. Mommy and Aunt Kim are keeping us separated. That’s probably a good thing, because I’m not sure I like the other cats. Except for Ziggy. I love him, because he’s my buddy.

The room is almost done now, and we’re really enjoying it. Ziggy and I spend most of the day out there watching all the visitors. There are lots of squirrels and sometimes bunnies. Big birds come up, too. (Mommy calls them turkeys.) They sometimes spread out their tail feathers. Mommy says only the boy ones do that. Ziggy and I are both boys, but all we can do is make our tails poofy.

Sometimes deer visit, too. When they come, Ziggy and I are glad we’re up here in our room, because they’re a lot bigger than we are!

To make our new space even more fun, Mommy and Aunt Kim are going to hang two bird feeders outside. One will be on Kassie and Blackie’s side, and one will be on our side. Then we’ll be able to watch the birds up close, but not close enough for us to reach through the wire and grab one. (Although that might be fun, too. Ziggy and I are natural born hunters, but being house cats, the only hunting we get to do is if a lizard or bug gets inside, which doesn’t happen often.)

Mommy and Aunt Kim are almost done with our room. Mommy says they’re going to finish today except for staining the wood. We’re not sure what stain is, but it sounds like it might be stinky. So we’re hoping they decide not to do it. I think we need to tell them that we like our new room just the way it is.

It’s Zaturday, the day we (Ziggy and Zorro) take over Mommy’s blog.

Ziggy here. Mommy and Daddy left us. (Do you feel sorry for us yet?)

Okay, Zorro says I need to tell you what’s really going on. They didn’t leave us permanently. At least, that’s what they said. When they were telling us goodbye, they told us they would only be gone for a few days. They said they were going away for their anniversary. I’m not sure what anniversaries are, but since it means Mommy and Daddy go off without us, I’m glad they don’t happen very often.

When Mommy and Daddy were making their plans, I heard Mommy say something about taking us with them. Daddy said, “When you go away for your anniversary, you usually don’t take your kids.” (I guess that’s us.) Mommy laughed, so Daddy must have been joking. I wasn’t sure how I felt about going with them. We’re used to North Carolina, because we go there every month. We even like riding in the car. But where Mommy and Daddy are right now sounded like somewhere Zorro and I have never been. New places make us a little nervous at first, but once we check everything out, then we’re good.

I’m kind of glad, though, that Mommy and Daddy left us home. Their friend is here taking care of us. We like Miss Audi. She feeds us the same good kitty food that Mommy and Daddy do and gives us lots of love. She even lets us sleep with her. Having Miss Audi around is like having another Mommy.

But tomorrow, Mommy and Daddy will be back, and Miss Audi will leave. It would be nice if we could keep all three of them—more people to own…I mean love is always a good thing. But Miss Audi probably already has a home.

Zorro and I are talking about pouting when Mommy and Daddy arrive, to make them feel guilty for leaving us. But I don’t think Zorro will follow through. He’s going to be so happy to see them that he’s going to forget all about our plans. He’s really needy that way.

Okay, I admit it. I’ll be happy to see them, too. I’m looking forward to Daddy picking me up and calling me Ziglet the Piglet…then giving me a big bowl of food. Maybe even tuna.