I sometimes take a little time to just observe Woody, our cat, and

Woody went out the front this morning.

wonder what, if anything, he is thinking - or is it all instinct with cats? I'm pretty sure he has instincts about the weather, although he never "gets it" that no matter which door he goes out, the weather is the same.
     Recently he has taken to dashing into the bedroom as soon as I open the door in the morning. He will spring up to the windowsill and peer out

Cruising between bare spots, sniffing the air.

suspiciously, tail lashing.
     One sunny morning I opened the window as much as possible, thinking I'd treat him to a good sniff the fresh air. I was completely taken off guard when I heard a scratching noise and a thump and turned just in time to see his butt disappearing through the narrow opening. He's a big cat and the awning type windows only open five or six inches, so it was a pretty daring plunge - and it is at least six feet off the ground. He was all business when I got to the window and looked down on him. Ears perked, tail lashing, all senses tuned in to the great outdoors.
     I thought once was probably enough, but a few morning later, I opened the window for him again, and sure enough, he went out again. The thing is, within five minutes or so, he's at the door knocking to come in. So why go through taking that plunge just to come back inside? I'll never know.
     Speaking of him knocking on the door to come in, on Monday a very nice gentleman came to the door and explained he'd read on this blog about our cat knocking on the door and I had mentioned that the knocker was a Foster sap spout. It seems he is a collector and wanted to see my Foster spout. Turns out it was one he didn't have - an "early Foster spout," he told me, and he went away very happy to have acquired such a treasure. 
     I'm not a collector - well, in a way I am, but what I collect I doubt is worth much. Mostly I simply don't throw anything away if it has any possible use left in it, either as it is or as a possible rehab item. I keep containers - glass plastic, cardboard - especially if it has a nice shape. You never know when you want a special kind of container for flowers or something; and then there are the nuts, washers, screws, bolts, bits of string, wire, rope or twine I keep. I get kidded a lot by family and friends for that, but every now and then someone is looking for something unusual and I have it.
     The only way I can account for my keeping seemingly useless stuff is that I absolutely hate throwing anything away that isn't used up or damaged beyond repair. That's why I have several lamps of one sort or another hanging out needing repairs or parts, and those little plastic trays mushrooms come in at the grocery store are forever filling up with bits and pieces and scraps of this and that. Because someday I know I'm going to be looking for somthing special and it will be in one of those saved containers right beside  some of the jars of left-over paint, boxes of rubber bands and bags of scrap cloth I've salvaged. I also save wrapping paper. I've been known to iron the wrinkles out of that and reuse it to wrap gifts. It's also great for doing collages. Especially tissue paper - I have lots of that! Glass jars are a favorite item to save. I can always find just the right size to use for things like a special chocolate sauce I've made or line one of the pretty cardboard containers I want to use for fresh flowers. It's all important stuff, and I don't care how amused my family and friends are - I'll keep saving stuff - it's who I am. It was nice to see how happy that nice man was when I gave him that Foster spout - I'm so glad I saved it.
     By the way, I found just the right size big washer to replace the spout as Woody's door knocker. It was in with a bunch of nuts and bolts . . . in one of those neat little blue plastic pans mushrooms come in at the grocery store.