always awhile
In his book, “Wherever You Go There You Are,” Jon Kabat-Zin encourages everyone to get down on the floor for at least five minutes every day. See the world, your world, from that perspective. One entirely different from normal. Bobbie, the feral cat, sits and sleeps on the dirt by the driveway gate at the house owned by a small, kind, older black woman. The house sits kitty-corner to the Logan Heights branch of the San Diego Library – where I get to support a young woman named Briana three days a week. Which is where, how, and why I got to meet Bobbie.
Somewhere there’s a photo I took of Bobbie straddling the top of a thin wood fence, about six feet high. Every time I parked to go offer support at the LH Library I would see Bobbie there. I’d walk on the sidewalk and use my cat voice to hopefully initiate a dialogue between us. Bobbie would just look at me. I was out there one day when the homeowner came out her front door and we got talking. She told me she had sort of taken in three cats which were seemingly abandoned by a family who had moved away from the house next door long ago. “Taken in” as allowing that trio to hang out in her yard, and feeding them real cat food daily. Not yet allowed in the house. Looking at Bobbie you can see why. He’s not trying to impress anyone with his outfit.
The point here is that Bobbie was forever on the fence – fence, fence, fence, fence, fence – and then one day he was on the dirt near the gate. The (nameless) woman said to me, “Bobbie doesn’t get on the fence anymore.” Just like that. Anyway, one day Bobbie came over and touched my finger with his nose through the fence, an outlier, usually he’s very careful and will jump away if I move too quickly. All of which comes around to Jon Kabat-Zin and check out the world from down there. For all I know maybe Bobbie scored a copy of that book from the library across the street and decided to check out the “different perspective” thing. And when our communication becomes a bit more vibrant, I’ll be back to let you know.
It may be awhile.