Suddenly Ms. Kali, our senior cat, is obsessed with the garage.

For almost all of the nearly six years she has lived with us, she has shown no interest in any what goes on outside the door that we use to get in and out of the house.

We like that because it means that in the event a cat does bolt out while we’re coming into the house, the cat can’t get out into the big world and risk running away and getting lost. It’s kind of a feline air lock. We come into the garage from outside. Close the door behind you. Walk over over to the door into the house. Walk inside, where we sometimes have to block Kinikini from getting out.

Kini used really want to get past us into the garage. That is, until I forgot he was out in the garage a few times and he had to spend the night there. Or, worse, he ran out in the morning a couple of times and then the yard maintenance guys next door started making a racket and the noise scared him. Suddenly he was really happy to get back inside.

But now Kali has joined in, and she spends an inordinate time lurking just inside the door in case an opportunity might present itself to sneak out. What does she do in the garage? Like Kinikini, she makes several rounds, sniffing the boxes of stuff stored around the sides, putting cat footprints on the car’s front windshield…nothing major.

We can’t figure out what has triggered the sudden interest. There hasn’t been any evidence of a rat or other critter that might spark her hunting instinct. Just the same old, same old stuff slowly gathering dust.

I suppose we should be pleased that this is the only feline-related thing we have to worry about.

Mynah!

Oh, here come the cats, including Kinikini in his kaleidoscopic splendor.

I should explain. We have put little cat cutouts on our windows and doors facing out to the back deck. They are designed as prisms that sparkle when hit by light and serve to warn birds not to fly into the otherwise clear surfaces. Since installing them, our bird strike rate has fallen almost to zero. And when the sun hits just right, those prisms spread their colors across the room. It really is pretty cool.