Smudge and I went for a walk earlier this evening. I should note that
while I'm the one who started this ritual, she is now the one who
initiates all the walks. This is an important part of our weekend
activities, apparently.

I usually walk along at a good clip, turning around occasionally to make
sure Smudge knows where I am. Sometimes she'll go into someone's yard
and get distracted, and then she'll suddenly start meowing loudly when
she realizes she doesn't know where I am anymore. This happened this
evening, so I called out to her to get her back onto the sidewalk and
following me. She emerged from some bushes and came trotting down the
street toward me, meowing every other second. But because she was trotting,
it sounded like, "Meow-ow-ow-ow! Meow-ow-ow-ow! Meow-ow-ow-ow!"

A little while later, we were repeating this scenario, when an orange
kitty came out of a yard and started slinking along behind Smudge. Smudge
didn't notice him at all at first. Finally, she turned around, saw him,
and let out a long warning growl/meow. He turned his head about 90 degrees
to the side in an overstated "I am not a threat" gesture. Still, she
continued to growl at him. He kept averting his eyes, but she remained
unfriendly. I kept saying, "It's OK, Smudge, it's OK," which is usually
a panacea for her. I really think he just wanted to meet her and say
hello. He didn't seem to have any aggressive intentions at all.

We encountered two more cats on the walk, and Smudge was very unfriendly
to both of them. She really doesn't seem to like any other cats!

Joyce