Monday, May 11, 2020

Cats, Walks & The Local

Any of you who have either visited us here or live here with us know The Local. The little bar, Cafe Cafe, at the bottom of our alley, was one of the attractions of the neighbourhood. Before we had even seen our apartment, we were at The Local, asking Honorio, the waiter, if we didn't finish the bottle of wine, could we bring it home. Of course, was his answer, and in the almost 6 years we have been ordering bottles of wine at The Local, do you know how many times we have actually brought a bottle home?

Once.

Every day, we walk The Cocos for about an hour in the city, down to the Zocalo, up and down the Alcala, around La Bastida park, through the plaza at Santo Domigo, up through Alvaro Carillo square, over to Conzatti Park (saying Hola to Brian and Martha around here somewhere), then back through the Cruz de la Piedra Negra park, down Los Arquitos, over a block to the market and through the alley back home. A nice walk. 3.5 kilometres. I oscillate between just enjoying my walk and training The Cocos, but I look forward to it every morning.


This morning was a little dramatic, as we had two of the street dogs with us who decided to go after a kitten that a woman was moving from under her car WITH NO PLAN. Sam and James Brown are big stray dogs, they live on the street, people feed them, and Sam regularly tries to catch birds in Conzatti park. Once I winessed a mouth full of tail feathers. The Cocos (our dogs) are little terrier things who live with two cats and the two cats they live with are The Boss. We had also run into Helen, and her dog Coco (single Coco, unlike my team of Cocos). So, there we are, all chatting and letting the dogs be silly and this ferral cat meows and the two stray dogs TAKE OFF. The lady who had caught the cat DROPS the cat, and chaos ensues. It was a little more than I was looking for on a Monday morning walk. We took our dogs and walked away, the strays following us. They shook that little kitten between me grabbing them and them dropping it again. The kitten was terrified but alive and able to run back under the car. Lesson for a Monday - if you are going to try to move a ferral cat from under your car, HAVE A PLAN. (And maybe don't do it while 5 dogs are being goofballs not 100 meters away...)

There are three or four kittens who now live down by our local. They were there when the local was still open and they would pretend to be friendly in order to lure you out of a piece of steak or chicken. Bread was fine too. They are feral and will hiss and bite when you try to get near them. Now they are fed by a neighbour. Louisa, my little female Coco, goes down every afternoon to see if they are waiting for her. And they usually are. Always just out of her reach, but still where she can smell them.




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