Saturday, March 17, 2007

Moonlight sleeping on the midnight lake

Today I stopped to pet a cat.

There is nothing extraordinary about this. I often stop to pet other people's cats because mine died, leaving my life bereft of catness.

I sat down on the ground. I was wearing scrubby jeans, trainers, and a black fleece hoodie -- my usual goin' to the library, hanging out around campus comfy atire. The catness, a plump female tabby with a rather stumpy tail and agreeable disposition, was situated comfortably on the pavement next to me purring her approval of my finely-honed belly-rubbing technique.

A well-dressed gentleman with a John Steed-style brolly approached, looked down at me, and said, "Sorry, I don't have any change."

That's the second time this term I've been mistaken for homeless, I thought. "That's ok, mate," I told him. "I don't mind paper."

12 comments:

Valerie said...

{giggle}. That's classic!

Unknown said...

Snort.

That's not happened here yet, but I'm going to be more cautious when indulging in my feline conversations in future.

Romeo Morningwood said...

"Consider yourself
at-home!
Consider yourself
one of the Fa-mi-ly!!"

FirstNations said...

that's interesting, isn't it? i always used to get mistaken for a 'buisnesswoman'. why this was I have no idea; my usual attire was a character t-shirt and torn levis. nowadays i get mistaken for either someone who works in whatever shop i'm in, or a drug dealer.

i'm sorry, the homeless thing just cracks me up! *snork*

FirstNations said...

ps-
artie g singing 'some enchanted evening'....
MELT!

Mr Farty said...

Nice comeback.

llewtrah said...

Walking to the paper shop with Billy this morning, a glack and white cat yelled at me from a garden. It would have been rude not to stop and say hello to it. On the way back, the same cat yelled me again. So I stopped again. Billy hadn't realised I have that effect on cats - they like to nag me!

Billy said...

I thought homeless people had dogs?

llewtrah said...

Doing Chrisis at Christmas (the Christmas shelter for the homeless in London) a friend met a guy who had a cat rather than a dog. The friend got me to put a cat "hamper" together containing flea powder, a blrush, some posh cat food and a cat harness.

ZB said...

I thought homeless people had dogs?

Drugs. Drugs and dogs. And dogs on drugs. Dogs with drugs on drugs selling drugs to other dogs. It's a vicious cycle.

Moominmama said...

val: classic? really? does this happen to other people?

hannah: you should be fine as long as you don't dress like me, that is, like a bum.

homo: [posh accent] Rather!

FN: at least since I've grown my hair out I don't get mistaken for a man. often. (ps. god awmighty yes!)

farty: ta.

llewtra: you seem to attract puppies just as well!

billy: mostly they do, becaue dogs, by and large, are dumb enough to stand around in the cold for the sake of a poor biped (present company excepted, of course). Cats are all "fuck this shit, i'ma go live someplace warm!"

llewtra: awesome!

Herebe: the best way to smuggle drugs is in a dog's butthole. That way when the other drug-sniffing dogs smell your drugs, their handlers will just think they're being friendly.

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work.