Stray Cat at Dawn

At 6:30 I was near my front door putting my shoes on when I heard an ever-so-gentle tap-tap on my front door. My hands stopped their movement of tying shoes. I thought "What in the world?" and was immediately conflicted about opening the door. Was it my downstairs neighbor for some reason? Was it someone bad who would hurt me? The soft tap-tap sounded again.

Gingerly, I opened the front door a crack and there, hanging on the screen, was a small cat. It had reached through the place on the edge of the screen that was loose and was gently pawing the curtain of clear red plastic hearts currently hanging on the door. The curtain of hearts was still gently swinging. The cat froze in place. I froze in place. And then the cat yanked its paw back through the screen, disengaged its claws, dropped to the porch and streaked off.

I stepped out onto the door mat. The cat halted at the top of the lower staircase and turned. It was so cold out, predawn, cold breeze in the darkness. I felt sorry for this cat out in the cold. "Kitty, Kitty, Kitty?" I called, wondering what in the world I would do if it came. It didn't. It delicately walked through the snow and sprayed my little pine tree and then returned to take one more good look at me from the top of the stairs before descending to the sidewalk and disappearing around the curve.

I went back into the house and shut the door. I looked down at Tim the cat, sitting in the center of the living room rug, remembering the time when he was a stray cat, so terribly skinny, and lost out in the cold. "Aren't you a lucky cat," I told him. "Is there a possibility of more breakfast?" he asked with his eyes.

As I drove out of the parking lot of the church later after meditation, two homeless men were standing behind the church in the lea out of the wind. I raised my hand to them as I passed and they raised their hands to me. One of them had his hands wrapped around a steaming paper cup of coffee.

Another of the long-time shops on Pearl Street had "Going Out Of Business" signs in its windows this morning.

Its cold in the world right now. Really cold. In the early morning, unexpected tapping on the door sounds like danger arriving at my house. I wish the recession would stay a story on television rather than standing as a "going out of business" sign in the windows of yet another familiar, neighborhood shop.

A Snowy Day and Meeting Cary

Early morning, looking West from my porch: I take this picture over and over ... every morning it looks like this I just feel compelled to grab my camera and take it again.

Walking home from Church I ran into my friend, Cary Sarlo, who used to live next door to me in my old neighborhood. He bought me a cup of coffee at Spruce Confections where we caught up on neighborhood gossip and our lives in general. He told me all about the area around Taos and Santa Fe in case my father would like to go home that route when he comes to visit me next week.

What a charming smile Cary has!

CARY AND THE RAT - A good story!

We laughed all over again at a shared experience: Once upon a time I was on the phone in my old house and looking out into my backyard when suddenly A RAT came skipping out from under the half fence between my yard and Cary's. I gasped aloud! A RAT! in my backyard. It went straight over to the pan of sunflower seeds on the ground at the base of the tree which I kept out for the squirrels and helped himself without fear or apology. I thought, "He doesn't know he is a RAT! He doesn't know he is considered vermin!" Here was a pan of seed left out free-to-all and he was happily helping himself.

Cary and I didn't know what to do about this rat who had probably come up from the creek that ran through our neighborhood looking for someplace out of the cold who stumbled on this shangrala of an opportunity... from a rat's perspective. He gnawed a hole in Cary's house and started living between the walls and in the crawl space above our townhouses. One night I heard him gnawing on the rafters above my bedroom. Clearly he had to go. But he was such a happy rat! I hated to do anything that would harm him.

Then one day Cary happened to be looking out into his back yard and saw the rat leave his hole and slip under the fence to go into my yard. Quick as a flash, he got out the board, hammer, and nails he had ready and blocked the entrance to the rat hole. From my side, I saw the rat eating at the feeder and then go the long way, around the end of the fence instead of under it, to go back to Cary's. He rounded the fence just as Cary started around it from the other side and they met face-to-face. The rat froze! Cary froze! And then the rat ran for its life back to the creek. We never saw him again!

I am afraid I have to confess that I teased Cary unmercifully... for a long time... about having a "face that would scare a rat!" : ) and yet, good-natured person that he is, HE was the one that brought the story up again today.