Let's end this week's homage to the "Cat Ladies" with a wistful tribute to the kitty who graced our garden for about a year. Last year, this handsome feline started visiting us, often waiting for us outside our back door. He lived under a yew bush in the protected, fenced corner of our yard.
I built him a little cat house (for the bitter winter). While I never saw him go inside his little A-frame, I often saw him leaning-up against it—warming himself in the sun. Twice a day—in the morning and at twilight—we'd find him waiting for us, in our back "courtyard," expecting delivery of his cat food. We fed him on our back porch, though he remained skittish, never approaching his food bowl until we were well-inside the house. A friend speculated that he (she?) may have been neutered because his left ear appears to have been "tipped" (that is, clipped-short by a vet, to indicate that he had been fixed). We named him "Tatsu" after a dear friend in Japan.
In the mid-Spring of this year, Tatsu stopped coming around. Had something happened to him? Did she have a litter of kittens? Had he been captured and stolen-away? We'll never know the truth. But his absence has left a small hole in our hearts. I look-out the kitchen window several times a day, expecting to see him waiting for us. He was beautiful. And I'll always appreciate what those poor, disparaged "Cat Ladies" recognize in their intelligent feline companions.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
We also can be found in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, at The Antique Center of Strabane (www.antiquecenterofstrabane.com).
Or call to arrange to visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only). 917-446-4248