One day when the Kitty Club Med left the Cat Colony Zone, walking single file, I followed them, hiding behind trees, under bushes, scurrying to catch up. I squeezed under the link fence, waiting till they crossed the street and walked up the sidewalk. Still single file, and obviously the Leader, the Black & White with the distinctive Penguin Pattern Colors, from the white around his mouth, continuing down to his underbelly, with white toes, marched forward, not looking to his left or right.
Next in line was the Calico Kitty, so delightful with a tail ringed in hues from ginger, to black to white with the tip a dark charcoal. No wonder she was such a Diva. Following Calico Kitty (her brothers ran surveillance, protecting her at all costs), was the biggest and the blackest of the Black and Whites. It almost seemed like his dark green eyes blended into his fur so you could not tell where his eyes ended and the fur began. Every once in a while he would stare behind like he sensed, even if he did not see me as I crept surreptitiously behind, using tree trunks and bushes, as camouflage.
When I saw the three cats turn into a gate of a little brick house with a detached garage that had seen better days, I hid under the umbrella mulberry bush, where the long flowing branches covered in green leaves, protected me from all prying eyes. Like who is kidding who? The three of them paraded over to the tree, looked under, the biggest Black & White (aka Beau Cat) gave a low snarl, like this is private property, get off. Then, tails in air, they turned in tandem to go find their favourite perches till Momma bid them to come inside.
From my vantage point, I could see all. It was like Shangri–La to me. There were huge flower beds, with bushes and flowers to hide under. The front yard had been ripped out and a rainbow of flowers had been planted, with stepping-stones so you could sit and help Momma weed. The huge granite stone porch at the front of the house was made for a kitty to lie down and soak up the sun. What was the most amazing thing for a kitty to understand was this huge flower bed surrounded in different stones from colored pebbles to river rocks to pink and red crushed brick which surrounded squares of shiny white dolomite on which tiny crystals were flung at random – you needed sun glasses to look at it.
Now I came from a Cat Colony (but my Baby Daddy didn’t, my Baby Mama told me) and I met up with lots of rocks and stones but not micro managed to perfection. Surely it must have been arranged by the Garden Angels my Baby Mama had told us about the night we were all trembling, as the big thunderstorm broke limbs from the trees and the lighting temporarily blinded us. Living in a place like this would be Paradise! Whoa! No wonder those three Hoity Cats had Cat-a-Tude.
To the side of the house was the actual entrance. The three cats walked up the steps of the porch and found their designated perches by the law of who’s on first. I noticed the penguin Black & White, always the leader, jumped up on the bench to the left of the door. Calico Kitty jumped up on the bench, a foot or so down from the Penguin. The second Black & White Cat, sat to the right of the door anticipating how the door opened, realizing, like how they walked home, they would file in the house because there are rules, and he is The Muscle where Penguin is the Brainiac, and Calico Kitty is the Diva. They all sat with their white-tipped toes folded neatly under them as they surveyed their kingdom. Still, there was plenty of room for me on that porch – just give me some time and scheming.
Then the door opened, I saw their Momma and I knew, without a doubt I would do everything possible to make this my forever home. She patted and stroked each kitty, the Penguin she called Andy Cat, the Calico, Diva Gen and the Muscle, Beau Cat – huh, what ever she called me, trust me, I’d come running. She had an ongoing conversation, letting them know how happy she was to see them, how delighted she was that they all came back in one piece. They ignored her chatter, in their quest to get inside out of the heat and humidity. No one told them and they probably did not realize cats originated on hot deserts so can tolerate heat but apparently not these ‘hot-house-cats’. Fine, I thought, I will just lay here under the mulberry bush and sleep till the sun goes down and their nocturnal nature drives them back outside to explore the world after dark.
And it happened, like clockwork. The outside light came on, the door opened and out came Andy Cat, Diva Gen, then Beau Cat who will, I know, tell their own stories.
In the meantime, I am going back to the Cat Colony to find Seven. Wait till he hears how the other half live!
