I’ve now lived in 5 US states, but it wasn’t until moving to the west coast that I saw outdoor (both feral and indoor/outdoor domestics) cats being a big thing. My cousin used to let her cat roam outdoors at night, but during the daytime I never saw cats outdoors. But on the west coast it’s a big thing. In California and the PNW I’ve seen lots of cats. My son and I used to get approached by a few cats on the way to school, but we haven’t seen them for over a year now and I’m not sure why. Today, though, I was walking down a street I usually don’t take to go home. I was stopping at a free little library to see what they had and a cat come running up to me. It was a long haired black cat with some white hairs sprinkled throughout, almost like someone had shaken a salt shaker on it. I gave it quick rubs on the head and apparently that wasn’t enough because I got a “meow” that made it clear I was to continue. I told the cat that I did have to go home soon, but I’d give it a few more pets and behind the ear rubs. The cat must have been satisfied by that because I said goodbye and walked away without hearing any protest.
It’s Tuesday and that means new books day. I like to follow bookish social media to see what books are getting released every week. Most of the books aren’t really for me and that’s fine. This week one we’ve been waiting for is coming out and we already have it on hold with the library. I’ve mentioned before that my son and I are big fans of the Minecraft official middle grade novels. A new one is coming out today called The Tournament by DeVaun Sanders. As soon as the library gets it in, processes it, and puts it on the hold shelf for us we’ll start that for our next read. In the meantime, we’ve been reading a book I loved at my son’s age: Anne of Green Gables. The plan was to watch astronomy documentaries until The Tournament was available for us since he’s very into astronomy right now. And I told my son this plan when I checked out some documentaries from the library. But he decided he didn’t want to miss a night of me reading to him. I hadn’t gotten any middle grade novels from the library because I thought we were watching the documentaries. I don’t buy middle grade novels for myself and it’s my pick this time for bedtime reading, but I do own Anne of Green Gables and was planning to reread it by myself sometime this year. I’m loving the reread and my son is okay with it so far.