What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?
Louis Catorze is a huge fan of harassing the local wildlife. Squirrels, birds, foxes, whoever … they’re all fair game.
These days, when I hear the cacophonous din of angry magpies or parakeets outside, I don’t even bother checking to see what’s happening. This is for the following reasons:
1. I already know that it’s Catorze.
2. He probably started it, so he’s getting exactly what he deserves.
3. If it all turns to merde, he can handle himself.
For whatever reason, when I heard said cacophonous din the other day, something compelled me to go and look. And, when I glimpsed that telltale black form on next door’s shed roof, I wasn’t surprised.
Then I realised that it wasn’t Catorze.
Now, I know that I may not have been wholly truthful in the past regarding his behaviour, when neighbours have reported disturbances. And I know that a previous record of lying withholding the truth may not make me a very reliable witness. But, Mesdames et Messieurs, this is not my cat. I can’t prove it, but THIS IS NOT MY CAT:
La chaussure is well and truly on the other pied now, because I am worried that this fine gentleman will be going around the neighbourhood causing havoc and people will think it’s Catorze. Or what if he DOESN’T go around the neighbourhood causing havoc and people think it’s Catorze? Maybe the magpie saw him on the bitter enemy’s territory* and thought, “There’s that annoying black cat again”? Magpies are supposedly able to pick out individual humans from the rest of the crowd, so they should be able to do the same with cats, non? Or am I thinking of crows, not magpies?
Gaah. It’s all too much.
*Technically this is Family Next Door’s territory but, as they don’t have any pets, Catorze has claimed it as his.
For a short while the two Chats Noirs were in the garden together and, surprisingly, despite Catorze’s tolerance for impingers diminishing rapidly with age, he didn’t seem to mind him. But, as soon as I opened the back door to take a picture, the visitor ran off. Which is a shame as capturing the two together would have been indisputable proof that, honestly, this time it really WAS some other black cat.
Will he (and it’s definitely a “he”, isn’t it?) be back? And will this be a beautiful friendship, or a war to end all wars?
louiscatorze.com 
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