Raining cats

Unbelievable. Today, as my husband walked Lizzy on the trails, he came across yet another abandoned cat, this young tabby male, who followed him home. The poor thing appears to be blind on his left eye, and while he's very friendly, he's also quite skittish and didn't want to be near the house, which I guess is a good thing because we can't possibly have four cats.

After we fed him, he ran away back into the woods where he had come from, but not before my husband was able to take off his collar, which had a bell but no identifying details. "You don't do a cat any favors when you abandon him in the woods with a bell on," my husband said, given that the bell would announce him to every possible prey he might catch to stay alive.

This afternoon, as I came home with only an hour to spare before I had to rush back to school to screen Jaws for my American Fear students, the cat was back, so we gave him some more food and left him on the porch. When I returned late tonight after the screening, the cat was comfortably seated on our porch furniture so I brought out a small litter box, more food, water and a warm bed that used to belong to Rusty.

When I looked out a few hours ago, he was gone. But if I know anything about cats, he'll be back. And then we'll have to decide whether to take him to the vet and have him neutered and checked out. That's how we got Sophia adopted, so we might have the same luck this time, I told my husband.

As my mother always says, I am a hopeful person.