Befriending the Semi-Feral (Public)
“Hey, we’re all here. You can feed us now.”
—02.15.2000—
I’m still housesitting on Gugh and had a big breakthrough today... with the semi-feral cats. They let me pet them! I was very excited about that. Not only that, but they let me do it while they were eating. Two of them were eating at the same bowl so I moved one of them over to even out the distribution. Then I thought, “Hang on, I just touched this cat.” So I tried to pet it and it worked. They still run away even as I’m approaching them laden with food, but at least now I can give them a few strokes while they’re distracted by their dinner.
Cinders, the little black one, eats with his paw. I’ve never seen such a thing. He’ll whip out his claws, spike a chunk of cat food and bring it up to his mouth. He’s also the bravest. As they all gather on the patio, following their internal meal clocks, Cinders walks right into the kitchen and sits in front of me as if to say, “Hey, we’re all here. You can feed us now.”
In other cat news... Well let me start like this. The little road Patricia and I built is covered with a layer of sand that will eventually have some kind of super-lawn growing on it. Walking past it the other day I noticed there was a little pile in the middle of it with scratch marks radiating out to one side. One of the cats must have thought that we had made them a giant litter box and just pooped in the middle of our new road. Since the poo was neatly buried I didn’t take it as a criticism of our work but rather as evidence of the widely differing possible interpretations of new construction among different species.
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My friends Mira and Jessica from San Francisco both sent me really nice emails today, both commenting on very similar things, about being alone, searching for meaning, both engaging, both encouraging. I really appreciated them.
When I got back from dinner at the pub this evening, I read that the anemometer in the living room had recorded a wind speed of 70mph! I think that’s almost hurricane force. Coming across the bar I did notice that, with the wind at my back, running took almost less effort than walking.
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