Scratchy n' Sniffy

I was informed by another member of my household, who shall remain nameless, that my last post was "pretty lame; the kind a journalist would submit while on vacation". (In no way am I to be confused with a journalist.) I won't promise that this blog post will be exceptional, but I'll try my best not to make it "lame".

Scratchy lounging in our back yard

Our next-door neighbor has a cat whose name I don't remember. What I do remember is that she told me once her friends call the cat "Scratchy" because he has some kind of allergic skin condition that causes him to itch and lose patches of fur.

Since we live so close together, with our back yards abutting, Scratchy and Gomer seem to have developed some kind of wary truce in which each has privileges to go into the other's yard. I've never seen nor heard them fighting, they seem to keep their distance, but I know that after Scratchy has been in our yard Gomer finds it necessary to do a nasal once-over of the entire property. In fact, he deems this necessary each morning (and possibly again in the evening). I'm not sure if Scratchy has the same routine after Gomer has visited.

No shrub or plant goes un-sniffed! Cats must have an amazing sense of smell, great attention to detail is given to the underside of the large hosta leaves and the low-hanging branches of the lilac and spirea. Who knows what coded messages are there? I'm not exactly sure how the rules of the truce are laid out, but Gomer spends quite a bit of time putting his own scent back on the bushes by combing his cheeks on them. Hopefully some fur is also left behind, bonus!

There's a lot of pressure on poor Gomer since Benji died; he has to patrol the entire yard alone now. In the past they were the dynamic duo, tag-team defending the property from any invasion was a full time job. Benji took it a lot more seriously than Gomer, usually not allowing anyone to trespass and sometimes even chasing an intruder down the street. Gomer takes a more laid-back approach- you can come in, but no using the gardens as a littler box (ok, that's my rule..) and definitely no interaction with my humans. They are strictly off limits!