The Newest Member of the Clan

We seem to have been adopted by a stray cat.

She showed up around New Year's, a skinny, ratty, filthy calico stalking and skulking through the backyard. We'd see her every other day or so weaving slowly through the bushes along the property line. Once, she either stepped on something or was bitten and jumped a foot in the air, landing on her butt and spending the next five minutes examining her right rear foot. There are any number of neighborhood animals that occasionally cross our yard so we didn't think much about her (except for the entertainment value) until the last cold snap hit.

That's when my brother put out a cardboard box full of rags for her to stay warm in. We never caught her using it but I did find her curled up in a tipped over flower pot just outside the garbage can enclosure. a day later my brother found her lying in a sunny spot in the driveway.

And that's when he went out and bought a bag of cat food.

He said she looked like road kill lying there, all skin and bones and flatness. Apparently she's a lousy hunter despite all the birds we have hanging around (not that we support feral cats killing birds, they do too much of that as it is. Just sayin' she's not guilty). My brother said, whatever else might happen, no cat was going to starve to death on our property.

So now we feed her out at the head of the driveway. She's fattened out nicely although she is still dirty and her fur is a mess. She needs a good bath, delousing and combing but even my brother's soft-heartedness goes only so far and she is not getting into the house despite sometimes trailing us to the front door. Her voice is a raspy, rough, unpleasant "rrowwrr" although my brother claims to have heard her purr once. Still, she has no incentive to leave now. She sleeps under whichever vehicle has been used last (and which, therefore, is giving off waste heat).

We'll see how long this goes on before my brother decides to spend the money to take her to the vet.