"Felix"
Envious of my neighbor’s wandering felines,
I was longing for one
after my rescue kitty passed
seven years ago.
Here they are free to explore the glories and graces of
the creek
the flowers
the groves
And all of Nature’s reserves,
including the raccoons that do not fear
my retribution for eating my garbage.
One day
a cat of unknown origin
arrives at my door,
Walks in as if she owns me and my abode.
She looks bored
yet inquisitive when it suits her.
As black as Midnight’s smile,
she is small but muscular,
with two thin streaks of white behind her ears,
piercing green eyes,
And a collar that reads “Felix”.
How could you not like that!
She is silent at first,
content to walk around me.
Slowly,
as if inspecting me for suitability.
For what, I do not know . . .
After a number of days,
she starts to play a game with me —
On her back,
she bounces her legs as if protecting a soccer goal,
or rolling a ball in a circus,
moving her head like an Egyptian dancer.
My stares and amused expressions
do not engage her.
She leaves quickly,
tail in the air
briefly pulsing,
As if to broadcast her boredom and
thinly veiled judgment.
By the third day
she repeats her sinuous moves,
But now meows in a such a way that
demands my attention.
I am intrigued,
so I mirror her as best I can
and gently place my hands on hers to appease her.
At that moment she quickly wraps herself
around one hand
and I fear for the life of that hand.
Thankfully, she abruptly releases my hand,
as if to say,
“I could have bitten your hand right off — but I didn’t.”
She seems desperate to play
and is excited to have a new willing
human play buddy.
Over the next several weeks
I would hear scratches at my door announcing that
Paw Play Shall Soon Begin.
Her moves subtly change and become slower,
more seductive
with more direct eye contact.
Eventually,
her movements become
cinematically slow
and wave-like.
Her eye contact deepens
and those once-sharp green eyes
slowly rise and pull back into her head
in a state of subdued
Kitty Ecstasy.
One night I heard her meow under the moonlight.
I thought was a dream
because it sounded so faint.
I never saw Felix again,
but she still haunts me . . .
And my memory.
June 2023
