A month ago, as I stepped out my front door, a small white-and-tabby cat mewed plaintively at me.
Because I’m a sucker for that sort of thing, I went back in, got an extra food dish, and filled it with dry food and set it out for her. She politely rubbed against my ankles before digging in.
The next time I went outside, she recognized me and went nuts with happiness. She rubbed against my ankles, wound between my feet, mewed happily, rolled over to ask for belly rubs, and generally was Thrilled To See Me!!! Even if I didn’t have food.
Her affection and habit of winding round ankles became a household joke, especially after Bear’s accident, when he was on crutches, and she impartially bestowed headrubs on his crutches and on his casted foot and his sound foot. Sometimes I had to pet the cat down on the sidewalk while he navigated the steps to keep her from “assisting”.
She was much too friendly to be feral. She also didn’t look like she’d been outside long. A family down the street had recently moved out. Given we’d nearly called Animal Control about their dog running loose, I figured they’d just dumped the cat.
I know what happens to cats without a home. I didn’t want that to happen to her. But we had three cats in 700 square feet, and I knew adding another just wasn’t possible. And then my boyfriend offered to take her.
I caught her Thursday morning by the simple expedient of picking her up and carrying her inside and shutting her into Puck’s cage. Puck, meanwhile, was thrilled with the chance to sleep on Dad’s bed. She remained there, with water, food, litterbox, and hiding space, all day Thursday and into Friday. This didn’t phase her at all; she lounged in the hide, being cute whenever people walked by in the hope of getting pettings, and ate with a hearty appetite.
And today, she hopped into the carrier with no trouble, and was taken to my boyfriend’s house. She wasn’t thrilled with the car ride, but apart from a few plaintive mews as the car swayed, she was fine, and was asleep when we arrived. We set up her things, opened the carrier door…. and out she came, ready to check out her new space.
She’s pretty happy. She has a 2500 square foot house all to herself, and someone there to love on her whenever she wants. She’s already scoped out a couple of places of refuse (which had to be resorted to when the trash was picked up) and discovered that she’s not allowed to eat off people’s plates here. (She pouted, which was hilarious.)
And Boyfriend named her Hana, because she has a round face with slanted Oriental eyes, and Hana means “flower”, and she’s definitely the sweetest, most affectionate cat I’ve ever met.
She’s never going out in the cold again. This is her forever home.
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