Today, on my usual Friday walk to the train station fro my school, this cat ran in front of me and then suddenly stopped to sniff the ground. I had seen him sitting on a porch a few houses in front of where this picture was taken this morning, so I knew he wasn’t a street cat or anything.

I knelt down and called to it, and it looked at me, then went back to sniffing. Still knelt, I waddled up to the cat with my hand out, letting it sniff me. After approving, it began to bump its head into my hand, which I then scratched ferociously. I realized I haven’t pet a cat in six months! How crazy is that? I rubbed it’s back then scratched the side of its face, when it promptly flopped on the ground (just like my cats do at home), offering up its fat kitty tummy. The cat and I hung out on the sidewalk until it popped back up, looked at me, and then stepped up on my knees, positioning itself comfortably, as if we did this every day. When I tried to take a picture of us, me awkwardly crouched and the cat canoodling on my lap, it jumped up onto a short wall separating a house and the sidewalk, and then stared at me.

I went on my way to the train platform, grinning, because cats are the best and I need them back in my life. I hope this becomes a “thing” that we do, every Friday.