Our Friendly Neighbor

We have a pretty friendly neighbor who lives right next door to us. His name is Jacob and he likes to come over and visit us all the time. When he comes over, he always climbs the fence and comes into our backyard. It also seems like he plans his visits for when we are eating dinner outside, entertaining friends or playing games. I think he really likes to be around people. The girls really like him and always go outside to play with him when he comes over. A couple of times he has asked to come inside our house, but we have limited our playtime with him to outside, because he does have some boundary issues. For example, besides coming over anytime uninvited, he also does like to rub against your legs and frequently requests that you scratch behind his ears, or give him a belly rub. I know that his mom and dad are worried about him and are concerned about his intrusions into our backyard activities, but we really do like Jacob so we are very patient. In fact, I am beginning to think that Jacob is a dog that looks like a cat!

How many cats do you know that would come over and play with 12 preschoolers during a party? Usually loud, rowdy crowds are when cats disappear, but not Jacob. He just comes on over and joins in the fun, totally loving all the attention and petting he receives.

A big sign of Jacob's congeniality is that he is starting to win Dave over. Yep, I have a picture of Dave playing with a cat! Since Dave basically has a life threatening allergy to cats, this is a pretty big moment.

It's a little difficult to tell, but here is Jacob playing catch with Ashley and Dave. He watched the softball go back and forth between them like a dog would.


Here the clever cat is getting a free belly rub...



and a back scratch.

The best part about Jacob is that after we have had our fill of him, he goes back home where someone else feeds and cleans up after him. He has also provided us with some pretty serious laughs, like the time the bird in our tree started dive-bombing him. The bird chased Jacob all the way back to his own yard, where the cat had to hide under a deck chair to keep the bird at bay.