by Billy Jaan

Created on: January 30, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

I spent some most delicious moments this afternoon....with a little black cat. He's not mine, I don't know who he lives with, but he seems to have adopted us. It started off a few weeks back; he smelt fish being cooked and after devouring the scraps we threw him, is now a regular visitor to our kitchen doorstep.

He made me jump today. I was washing dishes and had a fright when he leapt up onto the sill of the window where I was standing. I couldn't hear him on the other side of the glass, but I laughed out loud as I lip-read his meows. What was most impressive was that he must have seen me from outside and, even though this was on the other side of the house, had worked out that we needed to talk, and this window was the place to do it.

I sat on the kitchen floor and fed him scraps of last night's chicken, his deep growling purr vibrating under my touch as I stroked his lush black coat. Once sated, he rolled onto his back, demanding his stomach be stroked, which of course I obliged, smiling all the while at how content he now was, eyes closed, paws in the air, relaxed. Such beautiful fur; he's clearly from a good home, albeit not principled enough to refuse food from another hand!

This warm black creature took so much pleasure from those few scraps, and gave me more of the same in return. Would that we could remember to pause more often and be present in these most simple moments. So much running after happiness, yet so often joy is there before us, ready to be noticed and appreciated. I'm already looking forward to his next visit

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