February 4th, 2008

Living where we do, I find stray cats to be a necessity - with the reeds/waterline just past the house, we'd have mice in our laps if cats didn't have them as snacks. We recognize our locals on sight. There's a particularly fuzzy grey, a tabby-stripe, another grey with a smoother coat, a patchy cat, and a few others that patrol nearby. Seeing a stray cat strut down the street, tail high in the air, isn't unusual at all.



Seeing cats cuddle up to a car is. I dunno, maybe this happens all the time, and I've just missed it all along. But as I walked up the steps to our front door, I noticed the patchy cat strolling along our neighbor's driveway. He pressed his face against the front fender of the car as if in greeting, then hopped up and settled down. He was still there when I came back out with the camera, and his tiger-stripe friend had joined him. This one crossed the street, rubbed his face against the rear of the car, and began circling on the far side. He came around to the front, did a little more car-cuddling by the bumper, and proceeded to repeatedly rub up against the wheels as well before stalking away.

Maybe they itched. Maybe they were trying to mark their territory with their scent. I don't know. All I can say is that to me, it looked like they were seeking some love and affection... from a car.

Who knows what goes on in the mind of a cat?