When we lived in that rickety old second-floor apartment in Mill Valley and Tabs was just a friendly neighborhood kitty who stopped by from time to time for canned tuna and deep-tissue kitty massage sessions on my lap (this would have been around 2008), there were lots of other outdoor cats in the neighborhood, like Thug, the husky long-haired calico who Tabs always had cat standoffs with on the back stairs; and Snowflake; and Orangey, and a bunch of other outdoor kitties, many of which looked a little rough around the edges, but they mostly seemed happy, and it was a terrific area for cats, because the apartment complex backed up against an overgrown hill with fallen logs and thick underbrush and vines to hide and skulk around in. who knows what those cats got up to at night, but there were a lot of them in all shapes, colors and sizes.

We would hear them deliberating late at night in their cat town hall meetings…

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Sometimes I wonder if cats ever bump into each other later in life after they move away with their people, and if they do, I wonder how those reunions go.

Tabs has always been a very standoffish kitty when it comes to other cats. I think that times were tough for him when he was a young cat on the mean streets of Mill Valley. maybe food was hard to come by, or maybe he had to compete for human affection, because he’s always been crazy territorial, ever since I met him. If he catches sight or sound of another cat, his haunches go up, tail poofs out, and he makes a deep, guttural growl that doesn’t sound anything like his regular kitty meow.

I never hear that growl from him any other time…

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Anyway, I wonder if Tabs has ever bumped into any of the cats he used to hang out with in Mill Valley. I mean, people run into each other sometimes after moving out of town. maybe they see each other at the mall or buying lemons at Safeway. You never know, right? We’re only about 20 miles from Mill Valley.

Stranger things have happened.

I don’t know why I thought about this today, but maybe it was because of this morning’s kitty adventure…

The black cat that sometimes stalks Tabs was up to his old games. I could usually see him because I’m taller than Tabs, but poor tabby was mostly oblivious. The black cat kept circling around behind him.

Maybe it was territorial cat politics, or maybe the black cat was just trying to get close enough to Tabs to introduce himself. “Hey, Tabs! It’s me, Jake. remember me? We used to hang out and chase crows in Mill Valley”

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Who knows? stranger things have happened.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen