A few years ago, I had an encounter. Walking home from the grocery store, I met a friendly orange cat. Outdoors, with a collar, and a tag that said something like “don’t worry I’m an outdoors cat” on one side, and bore a name on the other side:
Wild Dave.
Every time I’d pass there, I’d look to see if Wild Dave was there again. When I’d pass there with my spouse, I’d mention that this is where Wild Dave was and look for him, to no avail. Sometimes I sort of wondered if he was okay since it’d been a while. I think I’ve seen him one other time since then. He kinda became a legend to my spouse. That’s just a name to conjure with, y’know? Not just Dave but Wild Dave. What did this friendly orange boy do to earn this name? Was it just that his human friends recognized that this was a cat who was essentially untamable, whose territory happened to overlap with theirs? Was it an ironic name given to an ultra-domesticated boy? Was there some story in his past that earnt him the “Wild” addition? I’ll probably never know. The mystery sticks in my mind.
Today, my bike’s rear tire went flat while I was at the cafe reading, so I dropped it off at the bike shop a few blocks down, and walked home. My route took me past where Wild Dave lives but I wasn’t looking; I was reading about some open source drama on my phone. Until I heard a polite “mrap” from down by my feet. And there he was. Wild Dave, just casually coming up to me and sharking my feet as if he saw me every day. I bent down to pet him. Then I remembered I was carrying some snacks for the cats who live around our place, and, well, I couldn’t not: I gave Wild Dave some snacks. A car bounced through a pothole a second later and Dave bolted for under a nearby car; when he didn’t come back after a moment I picked up the snacks and looked around, and there he was across the street, in front of the house I suspect he lives in/under/around. So I crossed over and gave him those snacks again, and he rubbed up against my legs, and I petted him.
Rock on, Wild Dave. May your days be long and full of snacks and scritchies.
I dunno, I just kinda like that I am the kind of person who some cats just run up to and say HEY LADY HI, GOT SCRITCHIES, GOT SNACKS?