Éviter les contacts proches

Coronavirus is now over, and we can all go back to doing whatever we like.

Well, nobody has actually said as such but this appears to be what everyone has decided, and Cat Daddy and I are the only ones who are still poking people away with a 2-metre stick. Although, to be honest, I was like this even before lockdown and, if I could continue the rest of my life telling people to stay away from me, I probably would. (Cats, however, are welcome to approach.)

When Louis Catorze was Côned, I didn’t have to worry too much about random strangers putting virussy hands on him because Le Cône prevented him from wandering too far. However, now that he is back to “normal”, I was a little concerned about where he would go and what he would do, especially as he isn’t the brightest star in the cosmos and some of us West Londoners don’t seem to be much better. We all know that cats can’t transmit the virus to humans but, all the same, the fewer hands that touch Catorze, the better.

His latest thing is to run outside when we open the door and roll all over the pavement at the feet of whoever knocked. He did it when Oscar the dog’s daddy came to drop off some masks. He did it again when Majestic delivered Cat Daddy’s wine. And we suspect he bothered Mohamed driving the Raspberry van whilst he was unloading our Ocado delivery, although it was dark so we couldn’t see (and we were too embarrassed to ask or check).

However, it was only when Puppy Mamma passed by the other day on her way home from the shops that I realised Catorze was smarter than I thought and that I needn’t have worried. Puppy Mamma and I caught up on quarantine news with me at the door and her on the pavement and, naturellement, the little sod darted out, shimmied through the gate (which would have been impossible avec Cône) and flung himself at her feet.

Puppy Mamma: “Louis! You look so much better than you were the last time I saw you!”

[Catorze continues rolling]

Puppy Mamma: “I wish I could stroke you, but I can’t.”

[Catorze continues rolling, his body becoming more and more covered in dirt]

Me: “Ugh. Think of all the dogs who have pooed here. Still want to stroke him?”

Puppy Mamma: “…”

By the time Catorze eventually stopped and I was able to shepherd him back in, he was covered in unidentifiable, greige crud from the pavement. So it seems I needn’t have been concerned about people touching him, nor of him encouraging them to do so, as he is his own social-distancing machine; nobody in their right mind would go within 2 metres of him, let alone put their hands on his gross body.

Here he is, mid-roll, just before the filth started to collect on his fur. There was no “after” photo because, by the time he had finished, he looked too grim for words.

Both shameful and shameless at the same time.

17 thoughts on “Éviter les contacts proches

  1. Hahaha! My eldest, Grau, does this to people – rolls at their feet and darts away when they try to touch her. She also rushes to the neighbour’s flat diagonally across from mine, and rolls outside their door. The inside of the building is basically clean, but even if it wasn’t (especially if it wasn’t) she would still roll. She likes dirt.

    These neighbours like cats, and welcome her in – she rushes in, checks the whole house, rubs her head on various corners, miaows a few times loudly, and rushes out again.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. My black cat Jake used to do it too. All the cats do it but the dirt is more noticeable on black cats. Dirt isn’t black but more of a greige. I think he’s adorable. Then again I adopted Jake his brother by another mother.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. And here I thought it was just the people in my neighbourhood who decided everything was back to normal. I didn’t realize the concept of deadly contagious disease was so confusing. Glad Catorze has figured out social distancing 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Your neighbourhood too, huh? Clearly everyone’s memories have been wiped of the last 10 weeks’ events! Catorze does, indeed, have the right idea. 😊

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I daren’t try! Sometimes, during hay fever season, I wipe him down with a damp towel to get the pollen off, and he loathes that.

      Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s