We had a shiny black visitor last night. There was a cat wandering around the parking lot when Kinga came home from shopping – for clothes, which is why it wasn’t “we” coming home from shopping – and the scrawny little thing followed her right up to the door of our apartment. Then into our apartment.
Fairly obviously not a wild cat.
She was small enough that she looked to be just a still-growing kitten. When I petted her, I was shocked at how thin she was. We decided to give a bit of food: some cheese and turkey. She devoured it, then drank from the dish of water we put down for a good five minutes non-stop.
“What is this cat?”we asked each other. Wild cat? Behavior ruled that out immediately. Homeless? No, too clean, and no odor at all. And yet, if its home is near, we reasoned, why did it drink so much water and eat everything in sight?
We tossed her out when she began scratching around on the carpet as if to make a mess there, then went for a walk to see if she’d follow. She did her business, then followed us a little way, stopping under a car and watching us walk away. When we returned, she was nowhere to be seen.
After a movie and “Telexpress” (a news show from Poland), we started getting ready for bed. For some reason, I was moved to go check if the cat was still around. I opened the door and there she was – walked right on in as if she were at home.
So we wondered what to do. Letting her sleep in the apartment was out of the question, having nothing for her to use as a litter box. We decided to open the storage room off the balcony and put make her a little bed there, with the door closed partially. I put some water in there and made a bed of some towels on a shelf in the storeroom.
Setting her down on the bed, I partially closed the door and darted back into the apartment. She stayed in for some time, but then left, only to return to our balcony door and begin meowing. We let her back in for a moment, then put her back out, this time waiting to see if she went to her little bed on her own. She did – we were elated. Then she left again.
This morning, there’s no sign of her. Still, there’s a can of tuna waiting for her if she shows up again, and a dilemma waiting for us if she shows up regularly and we can’t determine who, if anyone, owns her…
She’ll be back. She’s prowling for food and she has a source in you. She could be a freshly homeless cat. Or, her owners left for a while and let her fend. I am always surprised how many people—friends, neighbors—routinely let their cats roam for long periods of time. They say cats need this to stay happy. I say it’s against city ordinance and it kills off the bird population around my (former) yard.
You’re probably right. I used to have two cats when I was growing up, and they’d disappear for days and come back fatter than they’d left.
As yet, though, she hasn’t returned