{"id":33878,"date":"2022-09-10T19:58:58","date_gmt":"2022-09-11T00:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=33878"},"modified":"2022-09-10T20:00:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T01:00:28","slug":"making-a-new-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=33878","title":{"rendered":"Making a New Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A cat stuck her head in my coffee this morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a little past ten o’clock. I fixed myself a mug of coffee, picked up my Rubik’s Cube, and went to sit outside and enjoy my coffee on a glorious Saturday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I sat outside, I scrambled my Rubik’s Cube and proceeded to solve it. (Using an “edge’s first” method, for the record.) My coffee sat beside me on the concrete, and from time to time I reached down, picked it up, and took a swallow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the feral cats that lives in the complex — a tuxedo cat, not very old, and very scrawny — came out of the bushes, walked along the wall directly at me, and ducked under my chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next thing I know, she has her face in my coffee mug!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Coffee is not for kitties!” I exclaimed. I reached down, picked up my coffee mug, and the cat didn’t go anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re not supposed to feed the feral cats, but she clearly was in need of sustenance, so I went inside to the kitchen, got a dish and some milk… and when I turned around she was standing just inside my door (which I had left open). She ran back out as I approached, and I put the dish on the concrete, far enough away from my chair that she wouldn’t likely feel threatened by me while I drank my coffee and fiddled more with the Rubik’s Cube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I spilled milk all over the concrete. And the spilled milk was what she went for first. Only when she’d cleaned that up did she go for the dish.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Tuxedo
Who’s a good kitty?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After a few minutes, she decided she was done and she went back whence she came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten minutes later, she decided she wasn’t done, because she came back for what was left.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Tuxedo
Awww, pretty kitty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The way she stood this time I could reach out and touch her easily, and she didn’t flinch when I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a cat that lives outdoors, she was very<\/em> soft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this point, I had finished my coffee, so after moving the dish, I went inside and made more coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I returned, she’d made herself at home in my chair.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Kitty!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

She’s very friendly. I was able to pet her more, and she appears to have nursed a litter recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She moved on eventually, though she was lurking near the apartment in the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

In the afternoon, I went to explore a Lutheran church cemetery in Adams County, just across the border from York County in Abbottstown where family six and seven generations back are buried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I left, I noticed that the odometer on my Beetle has passed 200,000 miles.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"My<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It must have happened three weeks ago. I didn’t notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, I did not take this photo when the car was moving. Yes, the speedometer says I was travelling eight miles an hour. But the speedometer reads that when I’m in park. It’s off by eight miles. So when I have the speedometer at 80, I’m really travelling about 72.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one told me there would be math when I’m driving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cat stuck her head in my coffee this morning. It was a little past ten o’clock. I fixed myself a mug of coffee, picked up my Rubik’s Cube, and went to sit outside and enjoy my coffee on a glorious Saturday morning. As I sat outside, I scrambled my Rubik’s Cube and proceeded toContinue reading “Making a New Friend”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[4132,938],"class_list":["post-33878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cats","tag-cats","tag-vw-beetle","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}