Evelyn or Sometimes Eleanor

Animal Thoughts

There's a cat who lives down the street and when we walk by at night, he comes off his stoop and says hello.

I usually sit on the sidewalk for a couple minutes and we chill. He talks to me in Cat. I talk to him in Human English. I still think we kind of get each other. He doesn't seem to mind that I've renamed him Evelyn or judge me that I'm sitting on the sidewalk like a child.

I think he thinks of me as the random human with the Muppet voice and hairless arms.

It's all good.

And that's the thing, right?

I wish, sometimes, that it could be that easy with other people. That we could all be this chill and willing to hang together despite how massively different our experiences or languages or level of furriness might be.