Our next door neighbors , Rick and Tracy, are moving and I’m grieving the loss of them. Their three dogs greet me each time I come home. Their cats have been more loving to me than some cats that I have considered my own pets. They always gave me a friendly hello and a little bit of conversation.

I’m going to especially miss Pedro, their black cat. He loves to sit on our porch and sit on my lap. He will shed his thick, dark hair all over my clothes and hands. Based on his behavior, you would think that Rick and Tracy gave him no attention, but I know they fawn over him as much as we do.

When we first moved to Sugarhouse, we had to give up our black cat, Ezzy. She was a feral cat that had we adopted. She never was tame enough to be enjoyable, so we gave her up when we moved. I felt guilty and lonely for a black cat and Pedro filled that sadness for me. Now that he’s moving away, I feel like I’m losing Ezzy all over again.

Note on Picture: This was originally a photo of Ezzy. She used to just sit on the couch, drooling and sticking out her tongue. Mike got a really good picture of it and I played with it in Photoshop. I can’t find the original…