[Urbane Guerrilla]

Our getting adopted was simpler -- a longleggedy young black cat with a big round head began being seen around the parking lot, eating with the parking lot kitties. He looked like a feline lollipop. On account of his white chest blaze, we named him Blaze.

He found our patio door and took to raiding our first pet black cat's food dish whenever the door was open for a breeze. Screen doors, incidentally, aren't an obstacle to this cat. Just cuts his way through. All our window screens are dead, disemboweled.

Our first cat, Spooky, has been pissed at Blaze ever since.

After a week of trying to chase Blaze out with squirt bottles and hostile demonstrations, in which we once accidentally shut him in our house when we closed the doors for the night, we gave it up, got him his own food and water bowl, and feed the kitties at separate locations. Doña Spookita Gatita, Pantera de Poche y Semilla de Sandia y Patas de Peligro, is still darn annoyed he's around, female cats being more territorial and she was here first. Blaze El Tomogato, the Slippery Cat, takes a conciliatory attitude, being male and fixed. He's really rather timid at bottom, but is also too large and powerful for Spooky to take on physically -- he grew into his big round head and is now over fifteen pounds of he-cat. They scuffle some, but I notice nobody's drawing blood, and there seems to be an agreed-on ambush game and paw swats that seem more tagging than cutting.

Officially he's our roomie's cat, but he's a real people pleasing critter. Sometimes when he wants a pick-up, he'll sit up and spread his forepaws apart while looking hopeful. Irresistable.