There is a cat that often lives outside the home of my landlady. I say “often” because it’s common to hear it meowing at various times during the day or night. But it’s also not uncommon to see (and hear) no sign of it for a few days. The frustrating thing is that, no matter how much it would cry, when I would try to gently approach it, it would back away, sometimes even hissing. How it could cry for attention and do everything it could to avoid it made no sense to me. But, I suppose it wasn’t really attention that it craved.
Finally, last Sunday afternoon, I took some of my milk out to it while it was near the front door with the only one of its kittens that still seems to be around. Now milk it was very interested in. The kitten was interested, too, but a bit more nervous about my proximity. And that momma cat was not worried about saving some for the little one! But in its haste, the bigger one forgot to be wary, and I was able to gently pull it back from the small jar lid of milk. Alas, there was hardly a lick left, so I had to go inside for a little more. More milk, same story--but this time I was quicker to pull the momma away, and the small one had a nice little drink, also.
The interesting thing was that later that day when I walked slowly up to the momma cat, it allowed me to bend down and run my hand along its back several times. That was WAY easier than I expected it to be. Interestingly, it was several days before I saw the older cat again. Perhaps it was embarrassed by the ease with which it allowed itself to be befriended, and decided to beg elsewhere for a while. But it’s a start at friendship.
A safe place:
What's cuter than a kitten?
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