Stray kitty

I've been flirting with a stray kitty for several months now, hoping the cat actually had a home somewhere in the neighborhood. This cat has pawed at the cat door, driving the boys crazy. It's sat on the deck expectantly and made goo-goo eyes with me through the kitchen window. It sometimes sleeps for hours under the rosemary bush in front of the house, while Nada and Belly perch next to the window watching intently. Once the cat even got into the basement while I was harvesting; I'd left the door open briefly while I grabbed some chard and when I returned there was a panicky ruckus in the back of the room and then the cat shot out the door I held open.

Several cats hang out in our yard, both ferals and strays, as well as cats who actually do have homes. There aren't many yards on our block - just two, really, amidst the apartment buildings and condos and a couple of parking lots, so the garden beds and trees make this yard an obvious spot for cats to hang out. That's especially true now since we stopped letting our cats out much a few years ago, so they were no longer there to defend their territory. (Oh how they howl about the intruders from the windows, though!)

When I first started noticing this cutie, it seemed well-fed and young - maybe on the verge of adulthood. I've never fed it, but it's stayed close. Close, that is, when I'm not outside. There have been a few times that the cat has kept me company from a few feet away, once when I was chopping compost and another time when I was calmly weeding. But usually, if I get within about ten feet, it bolts out of the yard.

I've purposely not done anything to chase or intimidate the cat, waiting to see whether I'd eventually need to win it over. And now it looks like that time has come. The cat is starting to look kind of scraggly, and my neighbor said he saw it going through the trash at one of the apartment buildings. Not the behavior of a kitty with a home.

Even as I say that I'm determined to find this stray kitty a good
home somewhere else, I am fully aware that that was the plan
for Grumpus, too. We couldn't give him away right away
because he was FeLV+ and weak. And then, when he tested
negative and was healthy, well, we both realized we'd fallen
for him. I'd been advertising for a home for him, but I pulled
the notices after Sandy confessed, "I just love him."

This all feels a little like deja vu, as we went through much the same thing with Grumpus ten years ago. He was healthy-looking when we first met him, and we assumed he'd just moved into a unit nearby. He hung out near us consistently, and eventually became incredibly scraggly and scrawny and we couldn't put off taking him in any longer. The difference there was that he was stropping my leg even on our first encounter. The current kitty is playing hard to get.

I've been keenly aware that I'm short one cat-rescuer this time around, so was delighted when my close friend, Cynthia, offered to join in the project. It's much easier to deal with this sort of thing as a team.

The first challenge is to get some food into the critter. I can't just leave food out, because the raccoons have been hanging close ever since they destroyed much of the plum tree last month. So I'm trying to go out quietly and put food about ten feet away from the kitty when I see it. So far, the boys are getting surprise snacks, as the stray cat bolts for hours at a time and I bring the untouched food back inside. Nada and Belly are just fine with this arrangement.

We're hoping the cat has a chip, or at the very least is free of diseases. Honestly, I don't have the energy to try to integrate this cat into the household with two boys who have already expressed their displeasure with it. Belly, especially. He's chased it from the yard and fought it a time or two when he's been out for a little while. So assuming I can get the kitty to trust me enough to come in and go to the vet, there may well be a cat available for anyone who's on the market!