Jungle cats.

You’ve heard it a thousand times.  “You can take the cat out of the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the cat.”

The cats met the neighbor’s dog today.  I was up on the roof putting new pads in the swamp cooler when the neighbor came out with his dog.  At the time the cats were in the back yard busy attacking the old pads I’d thrown down on the ground.  They must have smelled the dog, because they lost interest in the pads and meandered under the gate into the neighbor’s yard.

Neighbor said that Sophie was raised around cats, and if they did start chasing each other and she got them cornered she’d just look at them like “hey, why’d ya stop playing?”

That and, for the most part, that I firmly believe outdoor cats have to learn to deal with dogs one way or the other kept me from stopping the meeting.

So, neighbor, his friend and I sat out there in the blazing sun for about half an hour watching the drama unfold.  I missed the perfect picture, one where Alan reached out his paw as if to touch Sophie to see if she was real.

It was an adorable pose, and what made me decide to go in and get the camera.  Unfortunately it was never repeated.

But still, they kept sniffing each other, getting close and then retreating.  At this point the cats had gotten pretty comfortable just laying in the grass letting the dog check them out.

Sophie came at the from the front, then went around and came from the west.  Then she decided to circle around the garbage can and come at them from the back.  That’s what got them up out of their grass bed and start to move around her.

Pretty funny, adorable stuff.  And maybe by the end of the summer, they’ll actually be playing with each other.