ECHO PARK

That was definitely gunfire.

PopPop.......Pop.

 Then nothing.  Dead quiet.

3am.

The ghettobirds were overhead earlier - most of the night in fact.  They are not what keep me awake, though.  They usually lull me to sleep; giant, hovering white-noise generators protecting and serving from above.  Besides, you know what keeps me awake....

So I can't seem to shake this cold.  The floor next to the bed in my little sublet is littered with wadded up tissues and wrappers from so many Hall's "Triple Soothing Action" lozenges (the one with the picture of the honeydripper on the bag).  I'd just gotten the cough under control when the mewing started.

I'm not a "cat person" per se, but I got no beef with felines in general. And, over the years, I have met more than a few really cool cats.  Before it was called "The Hotel Angelino", the building that looks like a stack of pancakes next to the 405 at Sunset was a Holliday Inn (there's another one in Long Beach).  They had (maybe still have) a cat named ChiChi that had a very cool setup in the garage, under the hotel.  Loudly purring, he greeted all the hotel guests upon their arrival.  Before I moved to LA, I stayed there and met ChiChi.  He acts like a dog - comes when you call, likes his belly scratched, etc....  I used to visit him every time I was in town.

But this mewing cat outside my door sounds just pitiful.  His mew sounds like "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease let me in."  Not constant.  Just enough to tug at my heartstrings.  I know it's raining outside and I know they just installed the steel mesh security door so you can't stroll in and out of the hallway at will, but I have no human food, let alone cat food and I'm subleasing and it wouldn't be cool and I'm already sneezing and coughing and your kind make my eyes itch.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese."

I held out for a long time.

"Pleeeeease."

...Maybe if I just go out and pet it....  Because now it is constant.

Fine.

So I throw on a pair of sweats and a hoodie, go out into the hallway and to the new steel mesh security door.  The thing is mewing nonstop.  I cannot see it through the mesh because the mesh is painted white and the hallway light is bright and it is dark outside but I hear it mewing and scratching on the mesh and I open the door and the mewing instantly stops.

There is no cat.