THERE WAS THIS CAT WATCHING ME PAINT...

This story could begin with “Once upon a time” except that when it comes to acquiring unwanted neighborhood cats, it’s been more than once upon a time.
In May we are celebrating the second anniversary of the acquisition of William Powell.
He is one of a zillion North Texas Tabbies, in particular one of many, many tabbies from our old neighborhood in Dallas’ southern Oak Cliff area. 
William is a handsome gentleman. He is named in honor of the great film star William Powell, no kin to either me or the feline William. But I think you can see the debonaire resemblance between the office cat and the movie star.
 My chum William is our focus for this edition of Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap.
How did I manage to get this comfortable feline as an office cat?
You see there a nicely lit photo of young tabby sitting on bricks of a flowerbed on the front of our old house. That is William. Those are my jeans. I was painting copies of The Mona Lisa and The Scream... I'm kidding. I was painting the wooden part of the house — that part that hangs over — possibly known as the “eaves” to people who know what they are doing. Let me look that up. Yes, "eaves." Look "up" is the key to painting eaves. One color. Easy...wear goggles to keep drops out of your eyes and keep your mouth shut, too.
Anyway, I stopped so I could try to cure the muscle-tightening pain in my shoulders and neck. Suddenly, from the shrubbery, came this cat. He hopped up next to me. I recognized him as the young cat who’d been with other cats who’d been enjoying our free twice-daily front porch buffet. When I went back to painting, he sat and watched. When I’d stop, he would saunter over for PwP — Petting While Purring.
What happened to the kittens in that colony over 20 years was we’d pick ‘em up, get ‘em fixed and move ‘em into a shelter situation or place them. Got the moms and dads fixed, too. Some of them, we placed in our own house. William is one of those — he came at a time when all shelters and rescue groups were loaded — kitten season in the most fertile city in North America, Dallas.
William has an air about him that says, “I’m your pal. Pick me up and enjoy the cuddle.”
He’s a lot larger now — a bit of a pillow of a cat. But he loves being the center of my attention. And he has a pal in the office.
They are the office cats. You see here William demonstrating for the 2-years-younger Stevie Ray Treeboy, how to pose dramatically for his Hollywood publicity photographs. 
Stevie Ray Treeboy is so named because he was rescued in Oak Cliff, home of Stevie Ray Vaughn, out of a tree. I walked out one morning, heard plaintive mewing from about head-high and walked to the end of the front of the house where I found a frightened handful of kitten paralyzed on a flimsy mimosa tree limb. I never saw a momma cat, never saw any other kittens. So, Stevie Ray came on in and took up with William.
If you do not have an office cat, our theory is you do not have all the equipment you need for a home office. If you are a writer, then you are missing the inspirational ingredient: Staring at a cat and wondering just what in the heck he is thinking about when he glares at you.
Just another mystery in the relationship between humans and cats.
[LARRY NOTE: Send photos and bios of your rescued sleepers and nappers to dallrp@aol.com. We’re proud to show off your friends in Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap, now in its 16th year. And we’re proud to remind insomniacs that they, too, can get some sleep if they can just figure out how to stretch out on top of a modest computer desk and not be annoyed by the typing and someone yelling, “By golly, this looks like a best-seller.”]
—- Offer wisdom or ideas not even a congressman would endorse by clicking on ‘comments’ below or emailing dallrp@aol.com. —-