(no subject)

Last night i went out to collect Edward. At the parking lot i saw him slipping under a parked car. I called and kept looking under cars as our neighbor M walked up. She called too and then exclaimed, "There's the raccoon!" And there the raccoon was, not ten feet away, eating the food left out for Marty (the cat of our neighbor recovering from the stroke). Suddenly, getting Edward in seemed more urgent. For some time, Edward and the raccoon were in the same twenty-odd foot stretch of mature hedge wrapping the end corner of the building. Then Edward was back under cars, and M & I engaged in slapstick, as Edward danced under them. Under the fence to the pool! Into a corner! Dodging M and myself and back under the fence to the cars!

"Let's go in," i told M. The urgency of getting M in clashed with the reality. "I bet he'll follow us." So she and i headed up the walk and Edward watched us from the edge of the pool. She shared her sad cat news -- her longtime companion has lymphoma -- and went in. I gave Edward one last glance, went in, closed the door, and told myself i was counting to thirty. One, two, three... at eighteen Edward was at the door, then in the house, then on the box where he gets fed. "Mrow!"

I interpreted that as, "Oh that was fun, i liked having two women chase me! Can i have dinner now?"

Christine looked at me, "He's my cat now, isn't he?"