Cats and dogs.

He had a cat called Deleuze.

The first he did when he arrived home was to go get his cat. He had been out of town for quite a long time. Too long maybe. When he left, he was in a relationship. Nothing seemed more natural then than to leave the cat with his significant other. The thing is, he was away for far too long. The relationship was now over, but, fortunately, they kept at least a decent respect for one another. So, it was a little weird to go meet someone with whom he had a relationship no more and ask to have the cat back. What if it was one of those involuntary heirlooms people get when they broke-up? Still, it was surprising how well things went. It was probably a result of the mutual awkwardness of exes who don’t really have anything to hold against each other but at the same time know that things are definitely over among them. The thing is, when he opened the door to his dusty-filled apartment, he was carrying a huge carrier bag on one hand and a black-and-white cat on the other one. Deleuze was a suspiciously thin cat; bony and awkward. He moved not with the confidence usual to most felines, but with a shyness that seemed to be out of a song by The Smiths.

She had a dog called Byron.

It took her and awful long while to find a place to live where she could have a dog, especially a dog as big as Byron. The big city seemed to be terribly uncaring about the animals living in there. She was actually a pet-person. Back in her hometown she had quite a few of them, but most she had to leave at her parent’s house. She moved to the city to study in the university, and she wouldn’t be able to give the pets the attention they required, even if she had found a place where she could keep them all, which wasn’t the case. She was now sharing a house, and her flatmates were not entirely happy about having the big coffee-colured Labrador there. But time would teach them to like the happy dog. She couldn’t find the guts to leave Byron behind, with the other pets. He had been by her side since she was ten years old. It got his name due to a slight shorter hind leg that made his walk look clumsy, but that was overshadowed by the inherent joy and majesty that Byron emanated. The dog made her feel happy, and that was the ulterior reason why she couldn’t let go of him. And also the reason why everybody ended up loving him, sooner or later.

They met in front of the cinema.

It was one of his favourite places in the city. He had to go there and see if it was still the way it used to be. It wasn’t.

It was a very cozy place, with a vintage air, in a quite old building. Now it’s almost contemporary. The outside looks haven’t changed that much, but the old movie poster have been replaced by ever-changing images on flat screens. The café there is now bigger, but it lost the tables it had on the outside. Apparently it’s no more possible to enjoy a cup of coffee under the willow tree on the backyard.

She was walking Byron. She lived nearby and loved to walk her dog. Especially since she couldn’t quite believe that she was living in the city and walking there made everything look real.

He was disappointed with the changes he was seeing everywhere, even in places close to his heart, like that cinema. She was temporarily amazed by the big-city lights, by the buildings and didn’t really realize that Byron approached someone. The dog caught his eye ‘coz it was majestic, even if limping. The voice of someone talking to Byron made her come back from her wonderings.

He said that that was a beautiful dog.

She asked if he was a dog person.

He answered that not really, that he liked cats better.

She told him she liked animals in general. That she missed the cats she left behind, but that her dog made her company.

He jokingly talked to the dog, as a mean of talking to her, saying of course, such a Don Juan might charm everyone he meets. And asked her if she had moved to town recently.

She replied yes, to study at the university and be and animal activist.

They smiled at each other with empathy and parted ways.