I forgot cats existed. I also forgot mosquitos existed but that’s another story. The outcome of forgetting mosquitos existed when I moved to Texas was disastrous. Not quite so bad with cats. In daily life in Arizona, if you don’t have cats of your own, you would never see a cat. There is no such thing as “outdoor” cats in Arizona because of “outdoor” coyotes. An outdoor cat would quickly be lunch for an outdoor coyote. So I hadn’t seen a cat for something like 15 years.

I really like cats but I could never have one because one, my husband is allergic and two, we always have big dogs. Even if you think the dogs get used to a cat and accept them as a family member, bad things can happen abruptly. Years can go by and you think everything is splendid between the dogs and the cat and then when you are not home, some instinct in the dog kicks in and you get home and no more cat. I’ve seen it happen. No cats for us.

One of my favorite cats of all time was my brother Sean’s cat, Gracie. She was adorable. Gracie was also one fat cat. In fact, she was the second fattest cat I’ve ever seen. The first fattest cat I’ve ever seen was in Venice, Italy and coincidentally when I saw this fattest cat, I was traveling with Sean before we both got married. Speaking of married, that trip had it’s strange aspects because at that time, 20 some odd years ago, we had the same last name and when we were checking into little, inexpensive B&B’s suggested by Sean’s “Let’s Go!” guide, Inn keepers assumed we were married and I ended up sleeping in the same bed with my brother way too many times. But yes, there was a cat in Venice who was fatter than Gracie living with a woman who made masks.

Sean was very defensive about anyone calling his cat fat. “She’s fluffy,” he would say. “Fluffy kitty,” he would say to her affectionately in baby talk. I guess we were all supposed to take the bait and go into denial about how fat that cat was, which we cooperatively did.

Anyway, my dog Troy, a one hundred pound Golden Retriever whom we suspect has hound dog in him had never seen a cat until we moved to Texas. There is one who must be a neighbor because I see it gallivanting around my house frequently. That cat is not fat and it’s new favorite pastime is to terrorize Troy. I have a high to low window in my home office that looks out to the front yard. More than once I’ve heard Troy violently barking in my office and have come running in to see him jumping up and down while that cat sits outside the window preening and glancing in at Troy while he goes berserk. While that cat might not be fat, I suspect it is smart. That cat is never around when Troy is outside.