Tuxedo Junction

 Feature this -- it’s five in the morning and, while not pitch dark out, the sun hasn’t risen yet. This is the time of day when I’m feeding the herd. Dispensing Fancy Feast, kibble, kitty weed and admonishments to ‘Please stay calm. Breathe, breathe. Stop picking on poor Gus.’ and ‘Eat, eat. That’s good food there, don’t let it go to waste!’

As I go in and out the door with bowls of food and treats, Coco, our indoor princess, sits in the front window, watching all the excitement.

It’s been a bit more exciting lately. You see, after Rocco’s big, fearless but brief plunge into the most un-feral displays of courageous affection, he jumped back into usual form. With a vengeance. Whenever I set his food or treats down, our fierce warrior king will begin to incline his head so that I might skritch behind his ear. When I'm near enough, he shakes himself -- like all of a sudden he thinks ‘what the fuck am I doing here?! That’s a human -- they're not allowed to touch!’ Then he’ll swat my hand away (no claws, just paw).

On top of this, he’s been reestablishing his porch primacy by getting all up in Gaston’s grille. They were at peace for some time once Gaston learned to respect Rocco’s porch seniority. Gus is, of course, where Gaston and Rocco agree. Poor Gus is hissed and yelled at by them both.

In any case, I was stepping outside at that pre-dawn hour to give Rocco some treats, when Coco zipped out the door in front of me. Escape! Oy! Rocco took off after her (double plus Oy!) and they both ended up under Jen’s car.

Here we were, two mostly black tuxedo cats, in the dark, underneath a car with their faithful slave laying on the driveway begging them to come out.

Which they did. And then proceeded to run in opposite directions. Rotten beasts.

Christ on kibble -- who to follow? I didn’t have my glasses on so couldn’t tell who was who. I followed the one who went to the back of our house and discovered...Rocco. By now, Coco was no longer in view but, from years past escape hijinks, I figured she’d be in the patch of yard between the two houses to the front of us. Yup, that’s where she was, pretending to gaze interestedly into Andrea’s basement windows. She made a big show of ‘I’m about to dash away. Catch me if you can,’ I scooped her up and we went home.

Damn good thing I put on my robe and slippers before coming downstairs this morning.