Slipping In

She arrived at our back door about a month ago. She did not stay or try to get in. She came cautiously, running away if we opened the door, but came slipping up the back stairs, and quickly downed the cat food and water we had placed for her inside a cardboard box as a protection from the elements. Just as quickly she disappeared. One day we followed her small cat prints in the newly fallen snow. They led us to our shed near the alley. She had found shelter under an opening under the shed. I believe that that hideaway had been previously occupied by a skunk that had been removed by a wary neighbor.

So it began. Each day my husband puts out food, twice a day, carefully mixing dry and wet food together. The weather has been cold and he often puts in fatty remains of our turkey or Christmas ham. We agree that she needs more fat in the extreme cold.

She still remains elusive, but she does not run as far when we disturb her on our back porch, and she answers to Bob's whistle when he first puts out her food. The past few days she even stays on our black back steps, warmed by the sun, cleaning herself thoroughly before she retreats to her underground home.

She is a calico cat, mostly white with large yellow eyes. She has long hair, helpful in this bitter cold, and she appears healthy. She eats a huge amount most days, but on occasion she snubs the food, and we guess that she had nabbed one of the many tiny mice that scurry around in the back garden.

She does not act like a feral cat, but she certainly does not try to make friends with us benefactors. She does not trust and remains cautious. This is strange. We have dealt with feral cats, and several times have had "dumped" cats peering in our door, asking to come in from the cold.

She is different. We wonder....where did she come from, what happened to her to have such mistrust? She is an older cat and not the usual "dropped-off kitten", left to fend for herself when she reaches about six months and is no longer "so cute", or, "getting to be a bother, so let's dump her".

She is now a part of our lives in some remote way. Will she ever allow us close to her? She seems oddly content residing under our shed and enjoying easy access to daily nourishment. We have lost our Bugsy after 18 years and our house seems too quiet some days, especially during the evenings when we have always had a fur ball purring contentedly on one of our laps. Will she move in closer to our lives, filling the space left by old Bugsy?

Perhaps in the new year we will have a new cat. Maybe yes, maybe no. Time and the stray cat will tell us.