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I Am Waylon

New York City

I'm from New York. So is my pal Willie. We've always been together.

We lived in a flat in New York City. It was a long time ago, so I don't remember it so well.

We moved out to California. I didn't like the plane ride. But I did like California. Big yard, not an apartment. Birds. Fresh air. Grass. Trees. Other cats' food. Other cats. Oh my!

But my human who takes care of me said that he was going to New York City for a week. I didn't want to go. When he talked about New York, I thought, "No. This place is good. I'll stay here." But anyway, he didn't even try to take me. So that was good.

And even though I don't like his big clompy shoes, I did miss the heaping portions of food that he would leave me. And he lets me eat on the dining room table. Safer. No one steps on my tail.

And he came back. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.

And of course, my human caretaker is a photographer. So I saw his photos of New York City. They were mostly of humans. Humans celebrating, eating, walking, talking, banging on things on subways, driving, going on rides, doing noisy things. We cats don't like noisy things very much. They were very colorful photos.

But no photos of cats.

He says that cats don't roam around New York City very much. Even his photos of Central Park had no cats. Dogs, sure. Ducks, yes. H took a photo of a duck. It must have been what humans call a "good photo" because this duck made my mouth water, it looked so good. How I wanted to chase it!!

He's back now. And he says he loved New York City.

Me? I'm just upset that he went all that way and didn't bring me back a duck.

My human caretaker is a photographer

I have a human caretaker. He's a photographer. He brings this big black thing to his face. Sometimes it makes a big white flash. Then he shows me a photo he took of me.

He always takes photos of me. Says I'm cute. Hey, if that means I get to sit on his lap while he's watching "24", it works for me.

He's always taking photos. Here's some of his photos:
http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/

And most importantly, here's his photos of me:
http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/miscellaneous/wayl onandwillie.htm

I'm photogenic. Even when I'm sleeping.

Anyway, sometimes, he goes away on long trips. And although I don't miss his big clompy shoes, I miss sitting on his lap while he eats tortas and bringing in birds I've caught in the back yard for him to see. He always reacts right away when I do this by quickly getting up, wrapping it in something, and putting it in a very safe, cylindrical container...so I know that he cares about the birds I bring in to him.

But when he comes back from these trips, I get to see something my cat friends around here usually don't see: cats from other countries.

That's right. I see photos of cats from Morocco. And Thailand. Would those be Siamese cats? Peru. Ecuador. Mexico. Spain. India. India some more. Ghana. Hong Kong. All over.

Even though I am sort of thin, I look large compared to many of these cats. They look thin. And often smaller. But they look happy.

I've seen a photo of a cat in Thailand eating a fish. It looked very tasty. I've heard Thai food is very tasty.

And photos of Moroccan cats. My human photographer caretaker says that Moroccans love cats because cats were Prophet Muhammad's favorite animal. I don't know who this Muhammad human is, but he already sounds really smart to me.

Peruvian cats. Ghanaian cats. So many cats.

It's a cat's world, after all.

I had an abcess - and I have the photo to prove it!!

Sure. This is old news. This was some months ago. But it's even longer in cat years. I had to wear a cone around my neck. For a week.

For a week.

For one week.

One of the humans took a photo of me with it on. He's a professional photographer. He's always taking photos of me. And I usually like the attention. I love attention. But this was not my best moment. Sure, I can look at the photo now and laugh. But then...then, it was humiliating. But the human who is a photographer - he takes care of me and feeds me and brushes me, and in return, I let him live in my house - he said that he likes to take photos of me because I'm cute.

And I guess I can live with that.

But don't get an abcess. Really.