The cats have taken over my neighborhood.
It all began when Leona, across the back alley from me, noticed 4 kittens in her yard, two black cats, one calico, and one redhead. When she investigated, she discovered that a stray female had the kittens hidden under her storage shed.
What could she do? She set out bowls of food and water.
The cats stayed and, eventually, when I looked across the alley through her chain link fence, I saw the kittens slinking around her legs, their tails raised, their necks rubbing against her ankles. They had found a home, but it was an outdoor home. Leona did not make the cats indoor pets.
I watched as the kittens in her yard rolled around playing with each other, chased and pawed at leaves when they drifted to the ground, jumped straight up to catch grasshoppers.
How adorable!
I didn't take long, the kittens grew, and they began exploring. Soon they were visiting my yard. I woke up one morning to see two cats lazing in my tree while the other two chased each other on the ground. When I opened my back door, they scooted quickly over my wall.
What fun! How clever they were!
Of course, the dogs behind me - one little dog that yelped, one medium dog that looked out of the gate at me with sagging eyes, and one large yellow dog that barked and barked and barked - took notice of the cats when they sat on the wall above the dogs and slowly and gently swished their tails just out of reach. Or as they sat in the grapefruit tree in the dogs' yard and looked down with pity at those poor creatures doing whirling dervishes in frustration.
The situation changed, however, when I found mounds of dirt in my yard. When I took a closer look, I realized that the cats had left "gifts". There were several gifts in the soft dirt under my Chinese Pistache tree, gifts that needed to be cleaned up, that smelled, and that, occasionally, I accidentally stepped in.
Word seemed to spread among the neighborhood cats and one day I saw seven cats in Leona's backyard. The original four kittens, mostly grown, and three strange felines, all relaxing and feeling right at home. Soon, the piles of dirt multiplied in my yard.
I was not a happy neighbor.
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