I took Frankie for a walk on Saturday. Sometimes he gets very vocal and won’t shut up until I take him out, then he is as quiet as a church mouse.

We started at our next-door neighbor’s house where Frankie had to do a thorough inspection of her bushes. I didn’t want to be standing right in front of her house, so I picked up Frankie and moved him to our side. Just then I heard her car door shut and then watched her drive away. “Okay, Frankie. Smell away.”

From there we walked across the street where we encountered a woman walking a small Yorkie. Surprisingly, the dog wasn’t barking. The woman thought Frankie was very cute and was amazed that he let me put a harness on him. While we were talking, Frankie walked up to the dog, the two of them smelled each other for a few seconds, and then Frankie quickly lost interest and continued walking.

We walked through the grass toward the pool. When we got close to the pool we encountered several people and dogs. To our left was a woman walking a small, white dog who was barking at Frankie. To our right were four people and two dogs in a parked golf cart. The dogs were not small but not huge either. The woman in the driver’s seat was so impressed by a cat walking with a leash and harness that she got out and walked toward Frankie with her phone because she wanted to video him. While she was doing that, Frankie started toward the barking dog.

When Frankie get to within five feet of the dog he stopped and changed directions. I think it was the woman who distracted him because he walked up to her and let her pet him. He then continued toward the golf cart where everyone was ooohing and aaahing. I’m not sure if Frankie liked the attention but he sure was encouraging it. He walked up to the golf cart, stopped and looked at the dogs for a second or two, and then continued on.

After that, he spent a little time rolling on the ground.

He followed that up with some grass-eating.

Finally, it was time to rest and to see how long Dad could put up with standing around waiting.

It occurred to me that if I wasn’t already happily married, and if I didn’t live in an old people’s community, walking a cat would be a great way to meet girls.