The Cats of Esplanade Avenue

A New Orleans Cat

You might notice that cats have the run the gardens around the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue.  They do not belong to anyone.  They are not pets.  They are free spirits, welcome fellow citizens who mind their own business, go about their own errands, and leave everyone else well enough alone.The cats are not tame.  The have never spent a night indoors, though they have spent plenty of nights in the shelter of houses, the crawlspaces under 2212, 2216, and 2222 Esplanade Avenue, included.  Nobody shoos them away.  It would be as productive as shooing mosquitoes.  

For better or worse, the cats are part of the landscape, part of the fiber and fabric of any given day.  Respect their independence and privacy, and they will respect yours.  There is something unnerving about a cat that pays no attention to you.  They don’t feel the same way about people.  They prefer it that way.

As feral cats, the cats in the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue are both shy and bold.  When no person is about, the cats have the run of the grounds.  They like it that way.  Confronted, they will give ground.  Left alone, they will lounge in the sun until they are bored, or until they have an appointment somewhere else.  

Somebody feeds them.  They are not fat, but they are well-nourished.  Their sleek shiny coats belie that they are getting good vittles somewhere on a regular basis.  

The neighborhoods around Esplanade Avenue are full of life.  Not just cats, but also lizards, rats, and chickens.  The lizards and rats are few, thanks to the cats.  The poultry are willing to give the cats as good as they get, which isn’t any guff.  While roosters and hens rarely wander into the gardens behind 2212, 2216, and 2222 Esplanade Avenue, you can see them on Bayou Road, or North Tonti Street or Barracks Street.  When a brood of chicks tempts a kitten to test its hunting skills, both sets of parents, feline and avian, soon put a stop to the proceedings.  Bird and cat live in peaceable co-existence, each species respecting the other.  

Some people get friendly with the neighborhood cats.  A painter spent a few months at 2216 Esplanade Avenue, setting up her easel in the garden.  She  set out sardine tins for the cats, and they sat at her feet while she painted.  One day, she went inside to wash her brushes.  When she returned, the cats had walked over her palette and tore her canvas to pieces.