Another late night walk, and a kitty.

Last night I took another late night walk with my book and flashlight. I walked for about two hours, pretty much all over Denton - my path made kind of a big triangle with the Kroger parking lot, the UNT campus, and the downtown square forming the vertices, and I was coming home from the general direction of Kroger. When I go that route, I usually take a shortcut through the parking lot of the Baptist church on Malone, just south of University. So, as I was walking through the well lit parking lot, I spotted a black and white kitty prowling around the edge of the sidewalk near the bushes. When it saw me, it froze and made as if to kick it into high gear. I approached warily and crouched, held out my hand, and said "Here ki ki meow!"

Well, that cat did kick it into high gear, right towards my outstretched hand. It immediately began meowing loudly as it rubbed its head into my open palm. As I stroked it and scratched it's neck and head, it purred loudly, all the while augmenting the petting process by rubbing its head forcibly against my hand and arm and leg; whatever part of me that was the closest to it. After a minute or two of this, I stood up and the kitty started doing figure 8's around and between my ankles, just rubbing and meowing like there was no tomorrow.

And then the kitty did something I've never seen a kitty do before... a dog, yes. But a kitty...? I stopped petting and scratching the kitty and I stood up. The kitty also stood up, latched onto my thigh with its front claws, and began rubbing its head against my knee! As if to say, "Hey, up there! Yeah, you! Down here! Why did you stop? Pet me! Scratch me!" I had to laugh out loud at the overt friendliness of this kitty.

So, I crouched down and pet the kitty some more, and took some pictures. It wouldn't hold still for very long, so I managed to get four decent ones out of about 20 attempts. After about 10 minutes of this I finally decided that I should probably get home, as it was getting late. However, when I started walking the kitty followed me. As it followed, it would lag behind a little, then take a running leap and latch onto my leg again, actually holding on for a couple of strides! It kept this up for about 50 yards, until we reached the point where the parking lot illumination began to fall off. I kept walking for a bit and then turned around to see what the cat was doing. It was just sitting there on the edge of the light, meowing its little kitty head off. I felt sorry for it, so I approached it again and pet it some more, then I started walking again. It followed me a little way out of the light, then sat on its haunches and started crying again.

I tried to get it to follow me home, but it was afraid to leave the light. I contemplated picking it up and carrying it home, but I thought that might frighten it too, so I left the poor kitty there. I might go back tonight and see if it's still there. If it is, I'll try to carry it home. That kitty is just too friendly not to have around the house.