Sorry Cat Guy

The building I work in is connected by a shared green space to some apartments, some luxury townhouses and is across the street from the Junior League. It’s a nice space, there are paths and grass and benches all shaded by huge arching oak trees. I go out here when I need to use the phone and I am always interested in the mix of people that I see. There are the smoking bankers in their blue suits, students, housewives walking small dogs, strolling junior leaguers, couples making out on blankets and the list goes on. And there is Cat Guy. Cat Guy is a disheveled older man in baggy pants, a white undershirt and baseball cap. Cat Guy, as the name suggests enters the commons carrying two cats in slings. The slings look like padded cat beds with handles like a tote bag sewn onto the sides. So the cats are carried in like royalty (which is very catlike of them, “take me over there but don’t touch me while you do it” if you think about it). So I’m watching all this but then I sit down on a bench and am talking to my Dad and examining the ends of my hair for split ends in the sunshine so I don’t notice until he’s right up on me. And he’s waving around one of the slings (which is empty) and saying “Hey, miss, hey….” trying to get my attention. I wasn’t very nice “Hey buddy, I’m on the phone here…” but he keeps coming closer and I say “Could you maybe take a step back” and he says “I just want to get my cat!” and I look down and one of the cats is next to my foot! Oops. I tell him “sorry” and “of course” and move out of the way. I was still on the phone with my Dad so I tell him what’s happened and I ask him why he thinks it is that I’m totally at ease and comfortable with some people and others just weird me out. I mean if the guy had been covered in piercings and tattoos and crazy hair I truly wouldn’t have thought twice about him. My Dad said he thought that was because with piercings and tattoos you can kind of know where they’re coming from but with Cat Guy, it’s a crapshoot. So, sorry Cat Guy, if I misjudged you or made you feel creepy when all you wanted was to retrieve your pet.