Soft touch.

I now appear to have a second cat. There’s a neighborhood cat that wanders around and occasionally is willing to be fed. I first saw her about a year and a half ago, when she sat on my oil tank and looked in through the window at me. (When I went outside to make friends with her, she ran away.) At that point, she looked to be about 6 or 8 months old. I fed her for a week or two last August, but haven’t seen her since. Never seen her wearing a collar. Monday of this week, she showed up at my side door as I was leaving for work, and looked at me expectantly. So I went back inside and got her some food. She’s been back every morning since, and now talks to me while I’m getting her breakfast and backing away from her so she can eat.

She’s a little cat, on the small side for a female (and would be an excessively small male, so I presume she’s female). Just the right size to sit in your lap, though. And she still seems to be curious and playful. She’s skittish, and doesn’t let me get within 15 feet of her. She looks well fed, although it might also be that she looks pregnant, in which case I’m glad I’m feeding her. If she’s not pregnant and is merely well fed and getting to eat more at my house, then good for her for finding another place to chow down. Her fur looks long and unkempt, which makes me think she isn’t just coming over here to eat during the day and then going inside someone else’s house at night.

If she is pregnant, I wish I could figure out a way to get her inside the house. I’d have to keep her closed up in one of the basement work rooms, but that’d be better for her and the kittens than being outside somewhere. Of course, it would drive Mia insane, and I don’t believe that would be a terribly long trip. (And if Mia’s upset, who suffers? Me. Not the ideal solution.)

And no, she doesn’t have a name yet. Until she’s willing to sit on someone’s lap, she doesn’t get a name.