Neighborhood Cats in Stealth Mode
Our neighborhood cats have been acting rather stealthily, of late. It has been interesting to observe them and speculate about their doings.
Case 1
In case 1, I was outside hitting golf balls into the backyard net one summer evening, when it occurred to me that I should double-check the car doors, to be sure that they were locked. When I went out back to the parking space near the alley, I noticed a medium-brown furry mass under the car. Mindful of the possibility of skunks (yeah, I know, the colour wasn’t right) or coyotes (probably too small, but it could be a young one), I looked at it warily. Suddenly, the mass of brown fur turned around and looked at me, before scooting off. Sure enough, it was one of our neighborhood cats.
So, I went back to hitting golf balls. Some minutes later, I happened to look up, towards the car. A young woman with jet black hair was peeking over the car, curious about the sounds of the ball-striking. Upon noticing me look, she skedaddled.
Was neighborhood cat shape-shifting, I wondered? That comes up a lot in science fiction and supernatural lore. Weren’t there at least two Star Trek episodes with that trope – the Gary Seven episode and a Halloween episode? I mean, if it’s good enough for Star Trek, you just never know, right?
Case 2
Case 2 is rather more naturalistic. A few days later, I happened to look out the back door window one hot afternoon, and noticed neighborhood cat #2, down the sidewalk, beside the small door into the garage. It was the black cat version of neighborhood cat this time.
I watched for several minutes as it stared at the door, with its ears twitching noticeably at times. Clearly, it thought that there was something interesting in there. Well, you never know, there have been mice in there, on occasion. That is one of the reasons that I feel fairly positive about the presence of neighborhood cats. That and their generally intriguing nature.
After several minutes it moved on slightly, to a pile of weeds and related greenery that I had cut down and still needed to bag. It showed a similar interest in that mass of composting vegetation, once more with the ear twitching and nosing about. After some time, it carried on further around the back of the garage. On this occasion, it moved rather stealthily, obviously on the hunt for something.
Eventually, I gave up and went downstairs to continue my work on the computer. A cat on the hunt has infinite patience – me, not so much. When I came back upstairs and checked out the door, I noticed that it had edged its way closer to the house, keeping up that slow stealthy maneuver. But after a few minutes, even it got bored, and scampered off to the side of the house to explore new territories.
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The Summer Cottage Mystery
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