brainylady

The Mystery of the Big Orange Feline

There's a ground-level window that I leave open when I'm at home during the day, so Bea can come and go freely. (She often comes in, meows, scratches something, has a bite to eat, and then heads back out.) This was the case yesterday, and it was a gorgeous day. I was sitting at the computer, working away, and at one point crunch crunch from the kitchen. "Hi, Bea," I said absently. Crunch crunch. "Boy, you've worked up an appetite out there, haven't you?" Crunch. Her food bowl is just around the corner from my desk. I stood up to do something just as a big orange cat came out of the kitchen! We saw each other at the same time, and there was one of those moments where everyone involved thinks, simply, "What the--?" And then I said, "Hey!" and the big orange cat ran back out the window.

But wait, there's more! An hour later I saw my landlord, who lives upstairs, and I asked him if he has a cat -- I was actually thinking of a particular grey cat that Bea has been getting into hissing matches with. It turns out that he had a big orange cat that went missing about a year ago. Could it be? Or have I just read too many "weird news" stories about cats who, say, fall asleep on a train car in Vancouver, wake up in Winnipeg, and then show up back at home six months later, having traversed the Rockies in winter and survived only by licking icicles that form on the tailpipes of big rigs? I really want this to be my landlord's old cat; he said, "The kids would sure love to get that cat back." Stay tuned...

p.s. Happy Moon Festival! No mooncakes for me this year, but I can actually see the moon at night now, so I think I get the better end of the trade-off.