BESTIES

Yodi or Yo Yo or Yo Baby or Yo-Wee, etc. is our spoiled brat cat with a sweet, gentle and loving disposition. Yo-Wee is what each grandchild calls him as they are learning to talk.

As the only cat of two active people, Yodi gets lonely. We have thought about adding another cat to our household to keep him company but we have had such good luck with Yodi that we are stalling. We tell ourselves that we are waiting until we get into a “forever” home but I wonder if that’s true. The thing is, Yodi misses his best friend, Lila. Even after almost five months, he still cries to go out to see if Lila is out there waiting for him and watches for him out the window. When he sees his reflection in the window, he wants to go out to see if it’s Lila.

Lila got his name from a situation of gender-confusion; his owners thought he was a girl. Recently, the owner who is a good friend and was a neighbor, visited the pet store where they got Lila and discovered a “store cat” that looked just like him. The cat was a male with a feminine name who he was also a gender-confusion cat. As it turns out; the store cat is Lila’s brother. What a coincidence!

Lila is gorgeous with long all black fur and beautiful green eyes. He was the only cat that was allowed to wander the neighborhood so he was very street smart. Where Yodi is a fraidy-cat, Lila is independent and brave. It was quite a surprise when it was discovered that they were “besties” because Lila was very independent.

When we were in Texas, it seemed that Yodi just wanted to be on the other side of the door constantly. He would want to go out but wouldn’t stay out long before he wanted back in. Eventually, I figured out that he was looking to see if Lila was outside waiting for him. He would also watch through windows.

When they were together, they would often stand in the street just looking at each other and Danny swore they were having a conversation. Or they would hang out on our front veranda just peacefully keeping company. Yodi had a curfew of 10:00pm due to coyotes in the area and when we would call him, he would most often come galloping from Lila’s house. Lila’s family are “early to bed and early to rise” but Lila had a pet door and spent most of his time outdoors. He had a nice back deck with a swimming pool and lush landscaping so we assumed that Yodi went over the fence with Lila to visit. He was too timid to have gone over without encouragement from Lila.

I discovered that Lila was protective of Yodi one day when I heard dogs yapping and cats yowling on our back patio. When I opened the door, a neighbor’s two Dachshunds had gotten out of their fence and had Yodi trapped at our back door. Rather than running from the dogs, Lila was confronting the dogs from behind by hissing at them. The dogs were friendly dogs and most likely wanted to play but dogs will be dogs.

Another time, I heard a meowing at our back door and looked over into our sunroom and Yodi was lying on the floor. Confused, I opened the door to find Lila looking up at me questioningly as if to ask, “Can Yodi come out to play?” Yodi came to the door and when he saw Lila, walked out the door to hang out. After that Lila would paw at our back door or meow and I would call Yodi who would saunter out the door.

We would often try to get Lila to come into the house to visit but he declined. When Yodi would decide he needed a snack, he would come in and leave Lila standing at the door. Being a weirdo, I felt bad that Yodi was abandoning Lila so we would scold Yodi for being rude. One time, we encouraged Lila to come in and he finally did. Yodi met him at the door and literally took him on a tour of the upstairs part of the house. They went up the stairs and over the crosswalk, down the hall and I am assuming peeked into the bedrooms. Then they came back down the stairs and out the door.

When Lila’s owner would come and sit on our front veranda with me to visit, Lila would wander down looking for Yodi. I would call out to Yodi, “Lila’s here!” and he would saunter out. When Danny would be outside and Lila would come over, he would go into the house and tell Yodi that Lila was waiting outside for him.

Lila still went down to our house looking for Yodi for a while after we moved. I wish we could explain to them about the move. I suppose even if we could, it wouldn’t be a comfort for they would still be without the companionship they shared.

A few times, Yodi has ventured outside since we have been in Colorado. One night, we heard screaming cats and ran out but couldn’t find Yodi. We were in a panic but finally found him cowering in the bushes. Danny had to go into the bushes and carry him out because Yodi was so scared. Though we have heard that there are feral cats around, we haven’t seen them but Danny has seen a couple of neighbor cats. We think that Yodi had become so accustomed to Lila’s friendliness that he trusted one of those cats and the other cat became territorial. Until yesterday, Yodi was afraid to go outside with the exception of our deck and walkway upstairs to which there is no access but through our bedroom. He finally ventured out yesterday but he stands at the open door peering out for the longest time before getting up the courage to go out. We are hopeful that eventually he and the neighbor cats will become friends but I doubt that there will ever be another Lila for Yodi.