Animalia

Well, when last I wrote, Linus aka The Dude had made his way into the house.
This was a big deal.

He had ignored our earlier invitation to come in but something moved him to return to our doorstep and plead a new case.

Okay, I had earlier in the day combed him and taken a wet washcloth over his very dirty coat. He was surprisingly receptive and trusting. More so than I ever experienced with one of my own animals. In fact, he seemed to relish the attention and care. So we decided that since Linus would soon be moving away and Belle was clearly smitten, we would risk allowing him in the house for a farewell visit.

Linus strode in oh so casually and made his way around the house with a sense of calm interest. Belle was alert and attentive. She made that very unique purr sound that we have only heard her use when Linus was on the other side of the screen door. Linus made the rounds including walking past Belle's food and water dishes without stopping. Belle took note and when Linus made a second walk past the bowls she got defensive and batted at him. He took it in stride and moved away and flopped down.

I got my cell phone to take photos as Linus jumped up on the new loveseat and then onto the coffee table where he curled up and made himself comfortable while Belle watched from her floor spot. It was wonderful watching these two creatures.

As it was getting late, Don and I took our walk and escorted Linus out with us and back over to his house. It was very clear that his people had already moved out and no one was in the house. They had left the garage door up about a foot so that Linus and his sibling, Oreo could come and go and have access to food, water and shelter.

This morning, I was sitting in the office and I heard a plaintive feline wail. It wasn't Belle, so I went out to the living room to see I could ascertain the source and as I turned to the dining room sliding door there was this giant white and black blob attached to the screen door looking like that cat poster from the 60s "Hang in there, Baby!" I couldn't believe my eyes. The Dude was climbing up our screen door trying to get inside. And if you saw the earlier post with a photo of Linus, you know that he is no small kitty.

In order to save the screen door, I knew I had to let him inside again. He sauntered in and made himself comfortable. Belle was trailing him making pretty plaintive sounds of her own as she tried to make sense of this unexpected visit. I had to shower and get ready to leave for a work meeting so I woke Don so he could come out and monitor activity. Before leaving, I sat down at the computer and Linus came over to me and jumped on my lap!

My mind was racing about all this. Had his owners moved out and left both Linus and Oreo to fend for themselves? No way. This cat is very much loved. Yeah, but we had made it very clear how much he means to us and even left them a note with our phone and e-mail address asking that once they settled into their new house to let us know so we could stroll over to the new place (walking distance away) and visit Linus. The first and only time a cat had ever acted like this with me was with my first cat, Nick. People kept telling us that if we ignored him and didn't feed him that he would eventually go away. NOT. But I digress and how Nick adopted me is a very long story for another time.

This afternoon at work, I needed some time to think through some things and take a break by the little lake. I brought a cup of corn so that I could feed the geese, ducks and their offspring. For this big city girl, it is still a huge treat to be sitting here surrounded by all these animals that I had only ever seen on television or in the movies. And here I was tossing out seed and watching them literally flock over to me for a snack.

The goslings are now almost as big as their parents and quite the teenagers. Still scruffy grey but starting to show their markings. Some of them would eat out of my hand and were a bit awkward about their nibbles. The mom (or the dad) would try to come over to get fed and the youngsters kept beating them out. I could hear all the adult voices playing out in my head that geese are mean and they bite so I had better be careful. Nah.

I tossed some corn towards the older geese and kept talking to them and encouraging then to come closer and they could trust me. I filled my hand and opened it up to them and sure enough, one of them began to take food right out of my hand! OH WOW. I began to tear up because I was having this amazing nature moment that I would never have thought possible. In fact, the older goose was much more gentle in taking the food than their goslings were. It was awesome.

I did have to have a few harsh words with one bully goose who got very territorial as I tried to share the wealth with another adult goose. Other than that, they were quite civil with me and with each other. And the sweet sounds that the babies make is indescribably endearing.

Tonight, as Don and I were having dinner I suddenly notice a white blur out of the corner of my eye. Yep. Linus had jumped over the fence into the back yard and was attempting to get in through the screen door again. Once we knew Belle had seen him and allowed the invitation to be generated or at least, accepted by her, we let Linus back inside.

He ignored Belle, her food and proceeded to make himself comfortable once again. He even joined Don on the couch to watch the end of the baseball game. Belle, hopped up on her cat tree perch and kept a watchful eye on them both.

Staying in his garage, Linus had once again got dirty and his white coat was now grey. We took him outside and we put some baking soda on his coat and I combed him. Then I took another damp washcloth and cleaned him up a bit. He was quite gracious about the whole thing. Then we walked him home and saw that Oreo was sitting quote forlorn at the end of the driveway. No doubt she was lonely as well as confused. We asked Linus to stay put and told him that his assignment was to be of service to his sister and stay with Oreo tonight. He stretched out on the driveway and Don and held an image of Oreo in our minds and turned to walk home not looking back.

Linus stayed on the driveway and we came home and closed all the blinds...just in case.

The Dude abides.