I greatly respect people who keep their blinds drawn open. That’s how we live. Pretty much anyone can see in any of our windows anytime of day or night—not that I invite you to step up and gawk. What’s the point of all that glass if you can’t look out or let the outside in (eh, like sunlight)? This series features a number of felines sitting inside windows, staring out: Cool, Curious, Glass, Kit, Seeker, Star, Still, and Watcher.

Open blinds reveal, in the windows’s lower right side, a handsome tiger sitting on a cat tree. Another relaxes on the sofa. Their owners earn my praise for enabling the furballs to look out. Good for them! 

No feline to appear in this series has history like today’s beauty, whom I first heard about six years ago. When coming or going with long-lost Kuma, through our back gate into the alley, I often chatted with Maxine’s owner. He rode an adult-size tricycle and loved to talk about his cats. These companions meant much to him.

Younger than me, he was effervescent, despite diminishing vitality from illness. Some people, by just looking at them, you know they peer down the tunnel to the end of the line. One day passed by, and he didn’t. He was absent for a few days longer. Then forever. 

For the second time in three days, I saw someone walking a leashed-kitty down Alabama Street. The previous occassion, passing by on my bike without camera or smartphone, no photo was possible. But this morning, I hauled out for an early-sun jaunt, with Leica Q in tow.

Just beyond Madison, approaching Mission, I came upon a woman walking her slim, quickly-striding cat. I asked to shoot pics of the beastie—Bella. She was more than willing and didn’t seem to mind my lying down on the street and sidewalk; she apologized about the shorthair moving so quickly. I observed great determination and will in the pace.