earl.

Earl is a cool cat. Pretty much everyone who knows him agrees, even if they (like me) don't like cats on a regular basis. He lives next door, but is an outside cat who ventures over to our yard on a daily basis. He's tough. He won't back down from a fight with "wanabe," another cat we nicknamed due to his clear admiration for earl. We don't know where wanabe lives, but he tries to hang out nearby until earl kicks him out. It's not unusual to hear hissing catcalls and see wanabe streaking away like a bat-out-of-hell. Earl doesn't act like a normal cat. He has an almost doglike personality, and will greet most people with a nice rub against the legs. Once, we were coloring with chalk on the sidewalk, and earl rolled over on a pink and blue striped shirt we'd drawn. He got up, and had pink and blue stripes on his back. He ran away this past summer, and was gone for several days. We were all a wreck. His owners eventually found him several blocks away. He'd made friends with some people who were feeding him. So today, I was outside talking with one of our painters, and he (the painter, not the cat) said, "the cat just went inside." Sneaky guy- he'd walked right past me without my knowing. I kicked him out, but not before I got a few leg rubs.