When I lived in southwest Pennsylvania, we had an expression that described our closest friends and family, “back door friends”. These friends would stop by, any time of day or night, rarely bothering to ring at the front door, but always welcome to come around the house to the back door and walk right in.
Now that I’m in California, my close friends and family know to come through the gate to the back yard, especially if I don’t hear them arrive out front. But, here in California, our back yard has welcomed an impressive number of Animal Friends, as well — impressive not only in their number, but also because our property is surrounded on three sides with a six-foot fence and an eight-foot wall at the back. Any Animal Friend who arrives at our back door only does so because they were determined to do so.
We’ve had quite a few short-time “visitors” — one Mallard duck couple came and stayed a week at our pool, several years in a row. We’ve had the odd, unidentifiable birds, a crustacean in our pool and a runaway iguana (who lived several months in our tree). We were befriended by a fledgling crow and “gifted” with four litters of kittens. Seventeen cats came to stay, a few of them only stayed for several months, but thirteen chose to remain throughout the remainder of their lifetime.
Cat People, Chicken People, People People. When we friend you, you stay friend. Whether you stay or leave — that’s up to you.