Parallel play — Zetaropy

Entropy and Zeta spend a great deal of time in the same small space and very little of it doing the same thing. Seven photographs, March through September, catalogue the settings: a bookshelf, a desk, the toilet, the office bin, the kitchen floor, and the catio.

March, and a bookshelf, repurposed without consultation. Entropy has the upper shelf, paws hung over the edge beside a stack of paper. Zeta, directly below, has the cushioned one, and is looking at the camera rather than at him.

Gray and white kitten hanging its front paws off the edge of an upper bookshelf, a black kitten sitting on a cushioned lower shelf looking up at the camera — Different floors, same building.

A week later, the desk: both asleep in the cable clutter beside a monitor, one of them very nearly the color of the cables.

Two kittens, one black and one gray and white, asleep together on a cluttered desk surrounded by cables near a computer monitor — Neither one woke for the photograph.

May, the toilet lid. One of them is nose-first into the roll on the holder. The other is watching the camera with open suspicion.

Gray and white cat sniffing a roll of toilet paper while perched on a closed toilet lid, a black cat sitting beside it staring at the camera — The bathroom offered no explanation.

Later that month, the office. Entropy is on his back inside the bin, paws up, entirely at his leisure. Zeta, much nearer the camera, is not involved.

Gray and white cat lying on its back inside a gray plastic waste bin with paws in the air, a black cat's face close to the camera in the foreground, a filing cabinet in the background — Filed under miscellaneous.

Early September, dinner over, the bowls still out behind them: both cats straight into maintenance on the kitchen floor, one flat out and thorough, the other more upright about it.

Black cat sprawled on a hardwood floor mid-groom with tongue out, a gray and white cat sitting upright nearby washing a raised paw, food and water bowls visible in the background — Separate methods, same standard.

And this week, the catio, twice in five minutes. First, something close to a formal portrait through the wire: both of them facing the lens, for once.

Black cat and gray and white long-haired cat sitting side by side behind wire catio mesh, both looking directly at the camera, greenery and a wooden cat structure behind them — Both facing the lens. Briefly.

Five minutes later: Entropy stretched out on the upper platform, Zeta a level down beside the cubby box, each at ease and neither paying the other any attention.

Gray and white long-haired cat stretched out on an upper catio platform, a black cat sitting a level below near a wooden cubby box with a red ribbon hanging nearby — Together, in the loosest sense.

Seven months, six settings, one working theory: they share the space by choice and the activity by coincidence.

Parallel play.

Parallel
play.