Cat and Dog

A TORTOISESHELL CAT sidles up to a garden fence and looks around at Tess, our friends’ little black dog, as we stand chatting on the pavement. I expect it to turn around and run as soon as it has satisfied itself that Tess is a dog, but, no, it continues to approach, hesitantly along the pavement.

The cat stops a few feet and makes a quiet, questioning ‘M’yowk?’

I wonder what’s going to happen next?’ I say to our friends.

'Oh, Tess doesn’t bother with cats,’ they assure me.

Tess turns around casually to see what made the noise.

The cat looks surprised, and scampers off back around the corner. Did it think that Tess, a small, shaggy, black dog, was a large cat?