What do you do when you see a cat? Let’s say a cat in a store window peering out at you, for example? Well, I dunno about you but, when I see a cat, my first urge is usually to go and try and interact with it, the polar opposite of my typical reaction at seeing another person.
So, now that I’ve outed myself as one of *those* people …
I’m walking down the street in uptown Port Townsend, WA, Tuesday-before-last, when I see a tortoise-shell cat standing on the back of a chair in a store window, gazing out at the street.
Well, I can’t help myself – I go over for a closer look.
The cat sees me coming and is immediately and welcomingly interested. I move in closer and the cat stretches its neck out towards me, scanning me with a friendly (but muffled by the glass) meow. I lean my face in even closer and – lallum lallum lallum – the cat starts licking the glass at me.
Now, were I more comfortable with the situation, I would have continued to stand there and watch the cat’s crazy-long tongue work the glass or gone in and asked if it was okay to say “Hi” to their cat but, as I am on a schedule I just stand there for a few, fascinating laps before backing off with a chuckle and moving on. Honestly: how thrilled would they be to 1) have a stranger cause their cat to lick the glass for minutes on end or 2) have a non-customer come in just to say “Hi” to the cat (although I bet they get that all of the time)?
In any case, I run my errands, peruse the beer and nigori at Aldrich’s, and passing the same window on the way back to my truck, decide it might be fun to try and take a snap or two of the cat with my phone.
Sure enough, the cat is still there and, yes, it still wants to try and lick me through the glass. I take a bunch of snaps (not video – wtf is wrong with me?) and thread them together into the animated gif below.
Anyway, if you’re ever in Port Townsend’s uptown, near the north east corner of Polk and Lawrence, glance at the windows and see if a torty is there, perched on the back of a chair in the window, getting a good lick at you …
For some reason torties always seem to be so quirky and funny, even more so than other cats!
Minus this experience (and a few others) I’ve not spent much time around them. This one was sure a character!