“Anyone who believes what a cat tells him deserves all he gets.”
― Neil Gaiman, Stardust

We have a neighbor with both a dog and cat, named Buddha and TicTac. TicTac is a strange little beastie who is highly distrustful of people (particularly males, we’ve noticed) but who, if he thinks you aren’t looking, will come close and prowl about. He’s let me pet him a few times (Jeff generally gets hissed at), but mostly he just likes to indulge his curiosity. If we happen to leave a door or window open–necessary in the summer–we will look up at some point in the day to see a flash of fur disappearing around a corner.

We don’t mind it in the slightest. He’s an amusing character, and we don’t mind pretending he’s our pet since we can’t have one for a while yet.

Snapped from my desk, I heard a mew and saw he’d come to visit.

We shooed him away from this sort of business and he turned up his nose from visiting us for three whole days. He sat outside our open door curled up with his head pointed quite clearly away from us. We’ve now developed an understanding. The basketry and textiles are off limits, but he can sharpen his claws in the built in rug if he so desires.

His latest set of tricks has been to wend his way through any open door he happens to see. A couple of weeks ago, he curled up and took a nap in our coat closet.

Last night Jeff was studying in the bedroom after dinner when he heard a smacking sound and found TicTac investigating his leftover nachos. We shooed him off again but he went very grudgingly.

Gracing my desk with his presence.