Cat Adventures

Over the past few weeks I've had a cat visit me at my apartment. Last Thursday night, I was watching TV and then I started to hear some noises in my patio. I went to the sliding screen door and tried to see what was out there, then I suddenly heard some meowing at the foot of the door. A gray cat with dark stripes was looking up at me and then started to meow loudly. I was shocked and started to panic as if someone has left a basket with a baby outside my door. I immediately texted a friend and asked what I should do. She jokingly said that I should let it in and keep it.

Thinking that it might be a stray, I thought it might be hungry or thirsty. So I put out a little bowl of water and the cat drank a little bit. Then I searched my apartment for some kind of food that I could put out. Unfortunately I didn't have an tuna, but I decided to put out some cheese and a few torn up pieces of turkey deli meat. The cat sniffed the food but didn't eat it. Obviously this cat isn't like the cat I used to have who would steal a piece of fried chicken, pizza, or bacon and eggs right out of your hands. Eventually the cat ate a few pieces of turkey, but he really wanted to come inside my apartment. (I call the cat a he, but I don't really know if it's a boy or a girl.) I stuck my arm out to pet him, and he seemed healthy. He wasn't skinny and it seemed like his coat was in good shape. Unfortunately he didn't have a collar, though. He would sometimes just sit in front of my screen door, sometimes he would just make himself at home and sit in the middle of my patio, and other times he would sit on my patio fence. Eventually I had to go to bed, but I left out the food and water in case he got thirsty or hungry.

The next morning, I looked out on my patio and he wasn't there. But later that afternoon I went to the store and bought a few cans of wet cat food and a small bag of dry kitty treats so that I would be prepared if he came back that night. But he didn't come back. In fact I didn't see him or hear him at all for the past week. But then he came back again last night.

Again, I was watching TV and he showed up at about the same time last week. I was watching the local evening news and then I heard meowing at my screen door again. This time I was prepared. I put some of the wet cat food on a plate and put it on the patio for him. But he wasn't interested in it. He just wanted to come in. So I texted my friend again and asked her what I should do. She suggested that maybe I should just pet him because maybe he just wanted some attention. So I sat down in front of the open screen door and petted him. He seemed happy, and at a point when I was distracted, he jumped inside my apartment. "Oh no, come back" were my exact words to him. He walked in my apartment, looked around at my couch and coffee table, then he trotted through my living room and made his way toward my bathroom and bedroom. He looked toward the bathroom, but then turned into my bedroom and went straight for the bed. He crawled right under my bed. He was close to the edge of the bed, so I was able to drag him out. I picked him up and he was kind of big and fat, so I have a feeling that he's not a stray and not totally neglected.

I put him out on the patio, but I got the dry kitty treats to feed to him, and he really liked those. And, once again, when I was distracted, he jumped in my apartment and went right back to my bedroom. So I had to grab him and carry him back outside.

So, I'm not so sure what to do. It's likely that he belongs to someone in the apartment complex, and maybe he just gets lost on his way home. Or maybe he just wants to visit me. Apparently he likes to visit on Thursday nights. Like I said, he seems to be in good shape and must be taken care of. We'll see if he comes back.

He's super cute, too. I'm trying not to fall in love with him. I managed to take a picture of him when he was in my home. It's a fuzzy picture because he wouldn't sit still, but you can see how cute he is...