My Wife and I have cats. Several Cats. And as cats are wont to do (those of the inside out nature), they wander around the neighborhood. But most of them are so skittish of strangers (they still think my son is a stranger - and it has been what? 3 years now?), that we dont worry about them. They never wander far, and they have collars in case they do.
The oldest cat is my Wife's favorite. He likes to wander for days, only stopping by for meals. She worries about him since he is 'old' (only 10), but he always manages to show up before she gets in a stew. Until Friday.
We got a call from a neighbor, who had taken in the cat and was feeding him (he would not go in their house, but allowed them to pick him up and pet him - hence how they found the tag). Anyways, they called us Friday and said he had been coming around for quite a while and was a nice cat, and they had renamed him. SO we went over to get our wayward son, and met the ladies that he had adopted for his second meal of the day.
They were nice enough. Middle aged, close to my wife and I in that respect. So we chatted a little while. IN addition to our cats, there are others in the neighborhood, some who have adopted us, most who just stop by for a bite now and then (they have tags, but wont let us get near them). Some of them were double dipping at our neighbors house as well (they have 2 inside cats, one looks like our babies - Tabbies).
After thanking them and picking up the prodigal son, we went home and now our prodigal son is on house restriction. I dont know how long my wife will enforce that, but he yells at me, and I can only shrug and say "talk to your mother". He knows better than to yell at her. Guess he knows who the softy is too!
After coming home, my wife asked me if I noticed anything different about our neighbors. Well, not really. I saw 2 ladies, I assumed the one who called was the home owner and the other a sister or friend visiting. But my wife says, did you hear when they said...... Nope, I was putting the cat in the car. Anyway, from the conversation I was not privy to, it appears they are not related by blood as one said to the other something about "Your Mother called". Not our Mother, "Your".
OK, so I am still saying OK, so what? Then my wife makes her observation. "I think they are a couple." Light bulb time! Yep, now that she said it, the pieces fit.
Like I said, I can be slow at times. I wish I had caught the other woman's name, as I am sending them a thank you card. As it is I only have the one name. So I will address it to the one lady and thank her. And hope that my lack of observational powers is not taken at a slight.