Rudy, the cat, lives in our front yard. He lounges under the mexican sage bush by our window, listening carefully for any motion that might indicate it's time for his cat food to appear on the porch. When he hears me in the bedroom, he calls out and rolls around seductively on the yard. When we take Lola for a walk, he stands on the wall of the yard and meows us to "come back real soon".

On our way back, he'll parade, tail up, towards us along the wall, then pounce down on the inside and roll around for us to admire his white belly. Lola, despite her love of catspotting on her walks, is nearly oblivious to his calls. She will occasionally put her front paws on the wall to see what's going on, and last night, Rudy walked up to her, nearly nose to nose. Lola didn't react at all, and even backed off.

We'd like to think that they could share space inside the house, when the cold weather comes again. We've seen Lola grab birds and balls and give them murderous shakes, and it makes us cautious. But Rudy is even more cautious than we are, and knows how to hide in the closet and behind the tv. And now that they have faced each other over the wall of the yard, and not blinked, we can renew our hope for cat & dog co-habitation.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 at 9:29 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.