Cat Confusion

I have written about Julius before. He’s the model for the cat in Yarn to Go He lives down the street, but more or less claims the whole block as his. I hadn’t seen him in awhile and I was worried. He’s a black cat and while he seems rather street savvy, he walks across the street like he expects car to stop for him. So, I was very happy to see a black cat sitting in the back of our yard the other day. I went outside and called Julius and he looked in my direction. I noticed he wasn’t wearing his collar and name tag, but figured he’d managed to get rid of it.

Except a few minutes later when my son went into the driveway, he noticed a black cat sitting under his car and when he saw the name tag realized it was the real Julius. It was better than the time he thought there was a black cat under his car and tried to coax it out and it turned out to be a skunk.

The real Julius came out from under the car and with a few blinks of his yellow eyes sauntered down the driveway and headed for home.

Meanwhile our two cats were watching from inside.

So, who is Fake Julius? We think it is a she, since the real Julius seemed to be watching her instead of picking a fight. We think she lives in the yard behind us. We’ll have to see if she comes back to visit.

It isn’t the first time we’ve had cat doubles. We used to have a cat named Einstein. I named him that because he was a stray who presented himself at our house, clearly a brilliant choice. He was a beautiful big cat and a golden color.

I thought he was a feral cat at first and was just going to try to catch him and get him fixed. I started feeding him and then on the third day when he finished eating, he started doing figure eights around my ankles, so I picked him up and he started to purr. He lived the rest of his life with us and was a wonderful loving cat. We think somebody got him when the Lion King came out because he looked like Simba and then for whatever reason abandoned him.

I used to leave the kitchen door open for him to go in and out, not that he went far. I think after being abandoned, he was so glad to have a home, he didn’t want to leave the yard. After I closed the door one night I came back into the kitchen and saw a golden cat. I went into the living room and saw another golden cat. Two Einsteins, was I seeing double? The cat in the kitchen came into the living room and the two Einsteins didn’t seem to like each other. By then I’d figured out which one was the real Einstein and went to grab him before a fight broke out. I don’t think Einstein understood and I ended up with the battle scares, but got him into another room and shut the door. By then the Fake Einstein was back in the kitchen, anxious to escape. As soon as I opened the door, he flew out the door and went home which we think might have been the same yard where the Fake Julius lives.

Yikes, cat confusion!