Romeo’s eternal vigilance paid off one night this week. I think it was early Wednesday morning, about 4:30 a.m. Meda was awakened by a cat’s singsong yowl, and she in turn woke me up. So I stumbled out of bed in search of the apparent battle. In the living room, in the dark, I could just make out Romeo’s shadow at the door to the deck. He was right up to the glass door. And outside, in the dark, was another cat. I couldn’t really tell whether the yowling was mutual, or whether it was mainly coming from the outside cat.

I was able to reach over to my right, under the window, and flip on the light out on the deck, and the visitor was instantly bathed in soft light.

He–I’m assuming it was a he–was a big bobbed-tail gray tiger cat, looking a lot like Romeo but with a bit of orange, like Kili. He wasn’t spooked by the light, but just looked up at me, backed away from the window, then slowly turned and strolled off across the deck, apparently heading towards the stairs just outside our bedroom.

This is only the second sighting of the wandering outside cat, although there was one other early morning ruckus that he was likely involved in.

Back when Romeo was an indoor-outdoor cat, he would return after a confrontation like this with scrapes and scratches, at best, or bites and claw wounds, at worst.

We’re very glad that the cats are now indoors and safe from such encounters.

–> See all of today’s Friday Felines!