The Company of Fluffs

At current count, we have three cats more or less occupying our yard. (Do we have a dog? Yes. Does our dog chase cats, or follow cats, or pay any attention at all to cats? No, because our dog thinks she’s a cat, and therefore ignores her own kind.)

One of the cats is black with little white feet. One is a fluffy old orange tabby, and one is white with a gray tail and gray markings and incredible eyes. (Look at these eyes!)

We do not own any of these cats. Two of them (possibly all three) have no collars.

These cats do, apparently, own a section of our yard now, having settled into their favorite spots. (The crows we’ve made friends with are Not Impressed With This Turn Of Events and caw at them fiercely from the safety of the apple and walnut tree.)

Black cat lords over the back flower beds. I only see Black cat when I’m watering roses and Black cat jumps out of the fuchsia bush, fluffy and wide-eyed like they’ve just woken from some kind of wild dream, man. I have yet to pet Black cat. (But it will happen.)

Orange cat is summering in the south corner, near our new shed. I was watering our as-yet-unplanted coral maple tree, and Orange cat zoomed out from behind a lean of plywood. I knelt and made happy come-here-baby noises. Orange cat suspiciously slunk a slow circle around me, then zoomed past me on the other side. There was no chance to pet speedy orange fluff, but we have meowed at each other.

Then there’s white cat. White cat has staked out the front AND back porch. White cat is curious. It tried to slide in through our screen door in a don’t-mind-me, just-taking-a-looksee-at-my-new-digs kind of way. I didn’t let it in, because I think (I hope) it belongs to one of our neighbors. (I actually think/hope all these cats belong to our neighbors).

While they’ve all been hanging around for months, I finally got a couple pictures of White cat, aka Moon Kitty, aka Porch Cat lounging on the back porch. After a little encouragement, White cat let me and my hubby pet it, too. It was very friendly, seemed more than comfortable letting the hoomans baby talk to it and give out soft pets.

None of the cats seem wild, or distressed. All seem well-fed. I’ll keep an eye on them as the weather gets hotter, then much, much cooler. If needed, I’ll check around to make sure they have good roofs over their heads in the winter.

But for now, I am quite enjoying the summer company of my three fluffs.