Thursday, August 11, 2005

Early morning visitor

We have frequent cat guests in our back yard. I call our patio the cat cafe because I keep a bowl of water in the shade for passing felines. Two of our neighbors have cats that drift over now and then. I've become friends with B.B. from up the street, a coal black fellow with golden eyes. Once I had to get a ladder and get him off the roof because however he found his way up, there didn't seem to be a ready avenue for him to get down.

My cat, Miss Daisy, feuds with my next door neighbor's cat, who we call Gray Kitty. She's a younger, trimmer female so it seems reasonable Miss Daisy who's a tad on the fluffy side doesn't really like her around.

Sad Orange Kitty
Of late we've been seeing a little orange cat. He's thinner than the time he first passed through the yard, so I've decided he must be abandoned. I fed him all the cat food my co-worker gave me after her cats made it clear they would starve rather than eat it.

Then I started him on a diet of my cats' food. They've been turning their noses up on it since a stay at the vet introduced them to finer cuisine.

Sad Orange Kitty has decided he doesn't have to polish off everything I give him in one sitting now. He was devouring it in a starved gobble. I guess not knowing where your next meal is coming from prompts that, even if it's food other cats would rather starve than eat.

Different fur
This morning when I got up to brew the java of the gods, I noticed something furry on the patio, but it was darker fur than Sad Orange Kitty's. My first thought was that B.B. had made a long night of it.

Then I realized the hind legs I was looking at weren't quite catlike, especially as they began to extend a little.

A few seconds later a raccoon was staring into my kitchen. He decided to flee as soon as our eyes met, and I found it a little freaky. Christine, who was still dozing, said my exact words were: "Jesus Christ, Christine, there's a raccoon on the patio."

Previous guests
A raccoon shouldn't have come as much of a surprise, we have frequent rabbits, and periodically an opossum used to show up to sample some bird trail mix Christine put out, and there are crows who sail over as well.

I guess all of them had the run of the place before developers carved our neighborhood out of the forest.

Perhaps my early morning visitor feels I encroached on his back yard more than he has encroached on mine. I hold the deed, but he's a native on this land, and to him I'm sure Sad Orange Kitty's leftovers were very tasty.









3 comments:

Anonymous said...

OSCON Highlights
I thought I'd start this blog by presenting a few random highlights from OSCON 2005.
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Sidney said...

Thanks for dropping by. That's a great story about the cat with the water-bowl. I've never seen one do that. Reminds me of a topic to post about.

Charles Gramlich said...

I saw raccoons and possums on occasion in the suburbs, They encroach on us as we encroach on them. Post Katrina the moust rodent problem has gotten really bad in the city, probably worse than in the country.

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