New Tenants Abound

I wake up before the alarm and hear a familiar sound from upstairs.Thumpity thumpity thumpity bump crash. Thumpity thumpity thumpity... wait, that sounds like... but both Kitty and B.C. are on the bed. And then it hits me. The late-night stampeding. The jumping jacks, the grinding. These are cat noises. Kitty and B.C. play the popular cat game Herd of (thumpity thumpity) Wildebeests Stampeding Across the Serengeti all the time. I think Thumper has a cat.

That afternoon I glance up at his kitchen window, which opens out onto the slope of the roof about a foot above the gutter, and perched on the sill is a giant gray and white short-haired cat, more bulky than B.C., but not quite as long of spine and limb. He regards me for a moment from a wide, bony face, then yowls. It's a friendly, frustrated noise, as if he'd like to get better acquainted, but that first step is a doozy, lady.

For some reason the noises don't bother me so much anymore.