Human Condition: Man gets looks on morning walks with old, one-eyed cat. 'That is so New Orleans!'

While everyone knows who the quintessential New Orleans dog is, it’s less clear which cat best captures our city’s spirit.

I humbly nominate my cat, Buddy. While Buddy hasn’t leapt off any second-floor balconies, he is charismatic and well known, at least in my Mid-City neighborhood.

Buddy’s origins aren’t clear, but we first encountered him in the fall of 2008 when he joined a colony of feral felines living underneath the apartment my wife and myself were renting Uptown on Valmont Street.

Unlike the other post-Katrina strays, Buddy didn’t flee when humans approached, instead welcoming a scratch on the top of the head. A neighbor started calling him Buddy, which quickly stuck.

When temperatures neared freezing that winter, we didn’t have the heart to leave him outside, so we started