Midnight at the Mos Eisley Cantina

We have a feral cat living in our back yard. He's a very round, yellow, shorthaired cat that we named Lalo(because that rhymes with 'yellow'). Well, at least we think it's a 'he', because it's never been preggers as far as we can tell.

Lalo lives on our patio, sleeping on the chair cushions when it's sunny, and underneath various places when it is raining. Sometimes he wanders off, but he always shows up eventually We put food out for Lalo, and make sure he has water, and that's about it. I always wondered if other animals were eating the food we put out, so one day I started watching.

There are other feral cats who wander into our yard; Two Socks, Blondie, and Moe are their names(I give them nicknames, sue me). But Lalo has planted his flag on the patio and no matter who else comes through his territory, he stays. Birds of all sizes/varieties show up during the day to grab some of Lalo's food(I wonder if they can tell they're eating chicken? And if so, what do they think it tastes like?). Some of the birds will dunk the cat food into the water dish to soften it up; which I think is pretty cool, except it messes up the water. There are possum who come by at night to snack on Lalo's food and get a drink as well. One night we saw what was probably an entire possum family--Mom, Dad, and the two kids--chowing down. Also cool. Lalo just sits or lays on his cushion and watches(or snoozes), and none of the other critters seems to pay much attention to him. Watching all this makes me think of that bar in Star Wars, if all the characters had been animals.

Tonight as I was turning off all the lights for the night, I glanced outside and saw Lalo curled up asleep on his cushion. And nearby, chowing down, was a thirty pound raccoon. I did a double take. My friend Jillsmo often speaks about all the raccoons they have in Berkeley and how they will come into your house and eat your food and drink all your beer and play all your Xbox games before sleeping in your bed. I thought about going outside and shooing it off--my husband will not share his Call of Duty game under any circumstances--but then I decided to just turn off the lights and go to bed.

After making sure the door was locked. Raccoons are tricksy.