Tracked Down

It's not unusual for abandoned animals to turn up in our neighborhood. In fact, six of the last seven cats kept at our place over the past seventeen years or so were ones other people had dumped off. (The one exception was Aka, who was born here.) Most of them just suddenly turned up on our property (and a few moved on after staying with us a while). A couple, including Tora, appeared at the campus of the elementary school down the street and wound up being brought home by my daughter.

Yes, my daughter has a soft spot for animals, especially cats. If she'd had her way all the time, the number of feline tenants at our place would probably have been considerably higher, and I actually had to blow the whistle on a couple. At any rate, we figured the fuzzy influx would finally drop if not end altogether when my daughter entered junior high school this year.

Dream on.

The last cat that my daughter took care of at her school was a kitten that turned up there last March. She never brought it home (thank goodness), but fed it and played with it during her last month at the elementary school. During Spring Vacation, after she graduated, she kept going back to the school to take care of it, but after a few days it simply vanished. She figured either it had run away or someone had taken it in, and it was soon forgotten.

Last Saturday, while my daughter was in her room (supposedly) doing her homework, she suddenly let out a cry. I went to see what the matter was. There, sitting on a ledge on the neighbors' property so it was just level with my daughter's bedroom window, was a youngish cat. It just sat there watching us, occasionally meowing. My daughter went outside to investigate, but it was gone. It didn't stay that way long, however. It began to come closer, little by little, as it overcame its fear, but it was clear that it was most comfortable around my daughter. That wasn't surprising since it appears to be the same cat that she was taking care of at her school last March.

I have to wonder whether this will end up being a new resident or not. Even though Tora has been fixed, and has already become a lot less aggressive as a result, there are two unneutered tomcats that lodge in our greenhouse at intervals. They are actually fairly even-tempered; in nearly every case it was Tora that picked a fight with them (and tended to get his butt kicked much if not most of the time), but they seem amazingly tolerant of the presence of other felines as well as being comfortable around humans. This new youngster actually seems a bit more on the wild side, though he's calm around my daughter. Even if he is welcomed by everyone else, however, it's questionable whether my father-in-law will put up with him; he tends to get antsy if another cat shows up...though quite often he's the one who decides to take them in after all.

(I'll try to get a pic of the new guy if I can.)