In our family I'm the 2nd oldest kittycat. My grumpy older sisfur
Cleopatra thinks she's the queen of the universe, and doesn't go out of
her way to teach or protect the tiny kittens. Pests though the tiny ones
are, I at least acknowledge my responsibilities as mentorcat.

We all like to spend time in the Out. We've got a nice kitty-sized yard,
with a nice sandy area ideal for litter purposes. It's got a nice,
sturdy fence so that the nasty barkydog next door can't come chase us,
and the nastydogs and dirtycoyotes that come down the street some times
can't bother us either. The only problem with our back yard is -
SPRINKLERMONSTERS! They only come out after dark, and they don't come
out every night. But when they do, they are terribly fearsome.

They start out hissing while they hide. After they hiss for a few
seconds they start to spit at us, then a few seconds later they pop up
out of their hiding places and just spit and hiss all over. They do
their best to soak us poor kitties!

Since I'm responsible for watching over the little ones when we're
outside, I always meow at them to get inside and I wait to see that
they're safely inside. Unfortunately that takes long enough that *I*
don't have time to get to the safety of the house myself. I have to run
to the far corner of the yard and huddle down into the one little tiny
spot that the sprinklermonsters can't get to. I then have to wait for
the sprinklermonsters to run out of monsterspit and go away for the
night (which takes FOREVER!), or wait for one of our hoomins to come
pick me up and carry me over those nasty monsters. It's a bit of an
indignity to have to depend on our hoomins to rescue me, but it it kind
of rewarding to be able to purr-laugh at the awful monsters when they
try to get me wet while in my hoomin's arms!

So, do any of you furcats have any ideas how to go about getting rid of
those nasty sprinklermonsters? I've tried peeing on them when they're
hiding, but it doesn't prevent them from coming back the next night.

Murrow,

Amelia