Feline drama
Megan’s visiting her family in Berkeley this weekend, so for the first time the cats and I are home alone together in the new house. One thing we’re all spending a lot of time doing is watching the front gate for Megan’s return …
This evening at one point, I noticed Fish really perk up, but it wasn’t Megan, it was some neighbor cat who had hopped over the front gate and was walking around in the yard …
Then I heard this cat-generated modulating noise coming from the basement. You know the noise, Megan: that noise we sometimes hear in the middle of the night and we lay there in the darkness saying “is that one of our cats?” and then decide we’re all safely locked inside and there’s nothing to worry about, so we don’t have to get up.
Anyway, it was that noise. When I got downstairs, Murg was on her perch at the window and the neighbor cat was outside, a couple of feet away …
They were speaking to one another, in a style that many homo sapiens pay good money to have a fellow member of the same species do for them on the phone. Loud. Passionate. Unrepeatable. (Somebody made an MTV video in the 80s where the person providing that service was an obese overworked housewife who was ironing at the time — who was that?)
I snapped pictures until the neighbor cat wandered around the other side of the house and out the back gate …
Megan’s been gone for 24 hours, and we’re all still alive. So far so good.
This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 9:36 pm. You can subscribe to comments on this post through its RSS feed.
on May 17, 2008 at 6:14 am Lynn Bradley wrote:
We’re all fine here too. I’m getting ready to awaken Megan for an early morning walk on campus. I do this every morning (with Stella) before work. It’s deserted and so peaceful. Then at nine Molly is meeting us for a walk in Tilden Park. We’ll celebrate Molly’s engagement to Querido with dinner tonight. Wish you were here with us.
on May 17, 2008 at 7:17 am Doug wrote:
Yeah, I wish I was there too. I’m heading over to Redmond for a while. Have fun.
on May 17, 2008 at 8:56 am Megan wrote:
Thanks, Dear. I never got around to scheduling a day off for yesterday, and then I ended up having so much going on I couldn’t take one, so I worked from Berkeley and just said I was WAH. Guess you’ve outed me, if anyone’s looking. So much for the modern office-less world. Well, I *was* rather productive, at any rate–even with a hyperactive black lab bouncing all around me.
Cute cats! That siamese better hope they stay inside.
on May 17, 2008 at 9:14 am Doug wrote:
Oops. I’ll be sure to blog about the next time you’re in your office on the weekend.
on May 17, 2008 at 10:29 pm Tom wrote:
When we had that apartment on Lunt years ago, Gabrielle the little white cat woke me up one morning with her yowling. It’s a pity it was before digital cameras — there was a totally black fluffy cat on the other side of the window, and they were sitting identically and examining each other. The black cat was having a blast — Gabrielle was not. She was having a complete fit, but it made for one of the most striking unposed photos I’ve ever not had the opportunity to take. He seemed to do everything she did in reverse, making for a really cool visual effect. And I was impressed that for such a wuss of a cat, she could puff up and do her job admirably when called upon.