I knew today’s walk was going to be presence over pace pretty much right out of the gate when I heard meowing in the trees near my apartment. I paused and called out, “Kitty?” and out came this absolutely stunning grey fluffball. He had a collar with a tag and the telltale wet spot on his neck where he recently got his flea treatment, so I knew he was someone’s baby.
He is a super friendly cat and wanted all of the pets and rubs which made it difficult to read his tag. I was able to see his address on the front of the tag, which was in my apartment complex, but he was such a wiggle worm that I couldn’t read the other side of the tag (I was looking for a phone number). After several minutes—and several conversations with concerned passers-by—he finally held still long enough for me to see: “Mom knows I’m outside.”
I was absolutely not happy about that, but kitty was close to home and was fixated on something in the bushes, so I continued my walk.
After my close encounter with a baby copperhead the other evening, I was still on heightened alert, especially whenever I heard rustling on the side of the greenway (another reason why I was upset that the kitty was outside unsupervised). Luckily, I didn’t see another snake and will be happy to start a new 8-1/2-year streak of not having any close calls.
I decided to make one last trip around the pond before heading back inside, since the summer weather has been so amazing (and quite un-summer-like for North Carolina). I was walking behind a man wheeling his baby boy in a stroller. The little guy gave me the biggest toothless smile and waved as I walked by. **adds met a tiny Prince Charming to my list of great things that happened today**
As I rounded the corner off of the street and back onto the greenway, a GenX couple and their 20/30-something daughter nearly ran me over on the path. I heard the daughter say something about, “Daddy is throwing it away…” and the mother let out a dismissive snort. Clearly, the mom was on a mission and not only was the dad letting the side down by taking a moment to dispose of trash, but also I was in her way and she wanted me to know it. (There was more than enough space for them to safely and comfortably pass me, but she nearly shoulder-bumped me.)
They were a few yards ahead of me when around the next corner we heard shouting. The family, having looked around the corner down the path, immediately turned around and went back the other way. I was curious, so I continued on.
It turned out that the shouting was three Black kids, probably mid- to late-teens, making a video in a cloud of weed smoke. I laughed to myself that the (very white) GenX family turned tail because OMG what could possibly be scarier than three Black kids smoking weed and filming themselves acting like a bunch of goofballs, right? 🙄🙄🙄 (For those using screen readers, that was three massive eyeroll emojis.)
The only reason I hesitated was because I didn’t want to walk through their shot (it’s a photographer thing…we don’t walk through someone else’s shot if we can help it). So I paused and took a swig from my water bottle. As soon as they started filming in a different direction I walked around them. As I passed by, one of them hollered after me, “DAAAAAAMN LI’L MAMA!”
*I just wish 20/30-year-old me realized she had it back in the day. Poor kid.