If I Could Talk to the Animals

Whenever I take my early evening stroll through the neighborhood I see various critters, but mostly cats. Whenever I pass by a house with cats in the yard I always talk to the cats — meow. I get one of three reactions, they look at me but do not reply, they totally ignore me, or they run away.

This evening I saw a cat I had not seen before. It was a black-and-white longhair sitting under a Lantana bush in a graveled front yard. I had never seen a cat in front of that house before, and at first I thought it was another cat I usually see a few houses further down the street. I was on the other side of the street so I didn’t bother talking to it because I thought it was the other cat. As I went further down the block I saw the cat that I thought it was — another black-and-white cat who totally ignores me. So as I turned around to head back home I went to the other side of the street so I could pass by the new black-and-white cat. I pulled up to the sidewalk and said hello. The cat looked at me but did not respond. Then I said meow and believe it or not the cat stood up and said meow back. So I said meow again and the cat continued to talk to me and even came right up to me. How sweet! So I kept talking to it and it kept talking back. It started to rub its head on my foot rest and then on my toes hanging over the edge of the foot rest. What a friendly cat. We carried on our little conversation for about five minutes and then I said goodbye. As I said goodbye the cats seem to know I was leaving and so it walked away from me back to its spot in the yard. I went down the block a ways and then turned around and there it was watching me. I guess I made a new friend tonight in the neighborhood.