This picture was taken at the intersection of east 36th Street & Lexington Avenue at 7am. The photo is very blurry (I tried twice), but the yellow leaves of this tree were on fire with the rising sun and looked so pretty against the quaint buildings on that street.

Now for a serious matter that I need some help with. I'm having a little problems with the kitties at The Works that I thought I would put out there. You guys may know Monk from his various appearances on the blog. Monk has a sister, Penelope, who has been very troubled the last two days.

We inherited an area rug from our neighbors on Wednesday night and Monk took a liking to it right away. He spent almost the entire evening sitting on the rug. Everything was fine. Late Thursday afternoon, he and Penelope started to fight with each other in way that is truly disturbing and very new.

Whenever he comes near her, she growls and then attacks him viciously. Master P thinks that the rug must smell like some other animal and she doesn't recognize her brother or like the smell. It's really very upsetting and more than a little unsettling. The cats are about 4 years old and we've never seen them fight like this before.

I sprayed the rug entirely with Febreeze but they are still at each other's throats (literally). All I've read about aggressive behaviour in cats suggests that I cat will act out suddenly if it feels its territory is being threatened. Could this be from the rug? I'm a a real loss, here. Tonight I put Penelope in a "time out" in the bathroom and Monk just sits by the door meowing mournfully. It's as though he wants to be near her, but she won't have it.

Has anyone had an experience with this kind of behavior?!