The big black cat's muscles flex as it prowls between the trees. She slinks down into a gully and water pools around her paws as her pads press into the mossy earth. She licks the air. Something is different in this familiar ravine.
Another black cat. Big as her. Smells like her. It watches her from across the stream. It peels back its jowls as she peels back hers and both cats growl at each other. They circle one another, crossing the water, their actions mirrored. The other cat matches her, wary pawstep by wary pawstep, tail flick by tail flick, in uncanny symmetry.
The big black cat cannot know how it is seen by the other, who thinks it is she, and she, it.
Paddy Dobson
16th February 2023