Late-night ramblings IV

For the second time this week (that we know of, anyway), Marshall's Cat blatantly strolled into our house. She hasn't been as friendly since that one fluke encounter, but she still huddled in a corner of our kitchen and fell asleep anyway. We can't figure out if she walked into our house by mistake (she belongs to our next-door neighbour), or if she just decided that since there is no longer a dog around, she'll claim our house as her territory as well.

We get the occasional stray lurking in the kitchen from time to time, but Marshall's Cat actually curled up underneath our dining table the other day. We didn't even realise she was there until she eventually woke up; she gave my mom quite a fright.

"Maybe we have such a nice home that she can't help but be drawn into it," I offered.

"No, lah! It's because you keep on playing with her, lah!" my brother interjected objectionably.

Oops. I'd better think of something to stop her from coming into the house, especially with my aunt (yeah, the one who's afraid of cats; come to think of it, all my aunts are afraid of cats) coming home in two weeks' time.

***



Here's another photo I found of Marshall's Cat. This was taken in May of this year. As you can tell, she isn't looking at me. Yep, she's looking at Rocky. That's the ledge at our backyard that I was talking about; this was one of the instances where she was just taunting Rocky, a ritual that we'd come to be used to witnessing.




And this is a really old photo of Rocky, taken about five years ago. The reason why we had to mesh the grilles was because Rocky kept squeezing through (despite pictorial evidence of geometrical impossibility). He would walk up and down the ledge, perilously close to falling to his death (the ledge is about five metres off the ground, because our house is built on an incline).

We went crazy each time he ventured out, sometimes even despite the mesh, because he would somehow burrow his way through some part of the wire that wasn't properly tied. But each time we rushed towards him, screaming for him to hold still, he would just flash us that silly grin (even if it may not be accurate to say that dogs actually smile) as if to say, "What's up, guys? Everything's cool!" Everything was definitely not cool; you can tell how much space there was -- or wasn't -- for a dog his size.

Just one of those everyday adventures that you never give much thought to when they happen so often, but that you find yourself missing so acutely when you realise that you will never be able to retrieve any experience that's even remotely similar.

***

Mom and I were taking an evening stroll around the neighbourhood, when we heard two cats in the bushes. On closer inspection, we saw Crescent humping Marshall's Cat. I thought I made sure to check for Crescent's gender, but now it looks like I was wrong! I'll take a closer look the next time; that night, however, was reserved for the, ahem, lovebirds.

***

On this upcoming week (where Tuesday is a national holiday)...

X: "I feel like taking leave on Monday..."

Me: "Long weekend?"

X: "... And Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday."

Me: "..."