For the longest time this fluffball of a cat has meowed the heartiest of 
morning hellos as I walked on my way to the beach. She'd amble along 
with me for a stretch, looking for a nice scratch behind the ears, lolling 
about on the pavement. I'd find her lounging on the top of a car one morning, 
asleep on a couple of different front porches on other days.  If we were a picnic crowd heading for a swim or a gathering of folks knocking on doors at Halloween, there she would be. For long spells, I wouldn't see her. Where was she? Whose was she, I wondered, this lovingly tended, chatty cat? 

Finally, one day, I saw her in a yard and the man there said, indeed, she was or at least had been his cat.  She couldn't be confined to one house, one yard, one porch or one family, he said and chuckled. She decided she was the neighborhood's cat. 

And there she was again this morning, meowing a happy hello.