Relative Something

After a day without sightings, the orange cat reappeared last night. In this instance, I was leaning against the hay shed door, waiting for the horses to finish eating their feed. Cyndie and Asher had returned to the house, so I was alone. Just as I took a step toward the barn, I heard a little mew.

My first thought was of the possibility that it was a new kitten because it sounded so small. I turned and stepped toward the spot where there is an obvious divot from critter traffic. Out popped the head of the orange cat.

I’m not certain, but I think it’s a female. She showed every indication of desiring my affection, so I gave her plenty.

After she crawled all over me, I decided to pick her up and walk to the neighbors up the hill and across the road. We arrived to find their orange cat (a little less orange than this one) sitting against their front door. At least I got verification that these are two different cats.

The neighbor’s cat didn’t bother to acknowledge our presence. Since there was no sign of animosity between the two, I set the dark orange stray down in their yard and started walking back to our place, hoping it would stay and the two of them would keep each other company.

I didn’t get very far when it became clear the stray was going to follow me all the way back. I sent Cyndie a photo of the cat on my lap and asked her to bring down a cat carrier. When I went into the barn to retrieve the feed buckets, the cat followed.

It wasn’t clear to me whether she had found Asher’s water dish while I was out with the horses, but when I tried to encourage her to drink, she showed no interest. She also turned up her nose to my offering of a few bites of the horses’ senior feed.

When Cyndie arrived with the carrier and a can of cat food, that cat became laser-focused and climbed right in to eat.

We decided to put her in the shop overnight, since it is heated. I had a tub and some cat litter stashed in there, so we set that up for her. Since Cyndie had posted on the Nextdoor app about this stray, she went back and left a note for one person who indicated interest if nobody else claimed the cat.

It behaved so affectionately with me; it’s a shame that Asher gets so riled up over cats. We’d be more inclined to give it a chance. I feel bad that nobody seems to be looking for her, since she shows every sign of not being a feral stray. We’ve had plenty of those paying visits to us, but their wild behaviors are very different from this little loverball.

I’ll follow up with details of how this plays out after we find an acceptable solution.

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