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Good fences make good neighbors.
When it is clear in what is yours and what belongs to your neighbor; when each knows where they stand ~ it is easy to keep the peace.
But what when one good fence is the pathway for different neighbors? Then trouble is brewing...
This is the case with the fence between me and my neighbor. To us humans it is a perfectly good fence ~ and yes we have been good neighbors for a number of years and counting.
Our cats consider it a different matter.
For my cats that fence has been the pathway from our patio garden into the rest of the world. And although it has been challenged occasionally by other cats looking to expand their territories, the fact of ownership of this fence was cut in stone. It was guarded, patrolled, used, sprayed, and even pruned in times when I took too long clearing the way for them.
This all changed when my neighbor also got a cat ~ a nice, friendly read head named Miss Kitty.
Suddenly there was this intruder who ~ whether she was permitted or not ~ started sharing this pathway. And it didn’t end there; the flat kitchen roofs ~ prime ‘looking out spots’ in Winter time, and the place to be come Summer, to either bask in the sun or lounge in the shade ~ now became a shared space with no clear rules as to who belongs where...
It has marked the beginning of a time in which cat fights have been a regular occurrence. And up to now there doesn’t seem to be any resolution. Three black cats on one side of the fence and the one read head on the other side of the fence all seem equally as stubborn in ‘claiming what is theirs’.
So far nothing has happened that could change that status quo.
Yet the fact that Miss Kitty so far has lost every fight, doesn’t stop her from coming inside our house... Carefully sneaking through the front door, quietly as to not wake up any of the black feline inhabitants, she explored the living room. Making certain to avoid any eye contact with me ~ after all, if she doesn’t see me, I probably won’t see her either... Finally making it to the cat-food dishes in the kitchen.
Of course, as soon as she started munching away one of my cats woke up and promptly escorted her out...
I have to admit though, I admire Miss Kitty’s persistence.
Most of us humans might have given up being ‘neighborly’, perhaps even gotten angry or resentful about the whole situation.
Yet for these cats every day is a new day.
And maybe one day Miss Kitty’s persistence pays off and peace will be restored in the neighborhood...
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;)
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