Zip and I had a lovely meeting this afternoon on the farm. I learned more about his territory,  patterns, and habits.

First, he climbs onto my chest, gets his skin scratched,  and falls asleep in my arms. Then he hops off to battle with his nemesis, the savvy chipmunk in the stone wall. She or he has managed to avoid Bud for a couple of years; she isn’t afraid of any cat. Zip looks for her every day. Then he returned for more cuddling and headed to the stone wall where the chipmunk leaves.

He covers a lot of ground in a short time. I’m beginning to grasp his territory. He goes to the same places at the same time every day.

The chipmunk has a whole bunch of tunnels and, so far, has no trouble spotting him and avoiding him. He got tired of searching and headed out to the deep woods. (Photo above by Maria Wulf.)

Zip stalks the chipmunk every day by the stone wall. She seems well ahead of him so far.

He is the Prince; he loves to look out over his province.

I watched Zip jump out of my shoulder and head into the woods, home of coyotes, bobcats, bears, owls, and hawks. It made me nervous, but it didn’t make him nervous. He only spends a little time out there and goes pretty close. But he is a Barn Cat, and barn cats go where they want.

Zinnia and Zip have decided to be pals (Fate is having none of it; she and Bud have yet to meet face to face, and she stays away from the backyard. Zinna ran away from Zip for a while, and he liked to tease her. At some point, they just decided to become pals. I never thought I’d see it, but it is foolish to underestimate Zip.

He’s working on Fate now. That would be a miracle.