The orange cat.

Just after we had our dinner tonight, I heard a meow on the back porch. I looked out the door and there was the orange/white stray, looking at me as I peeked out through the glass of the back door. "Okay... you win," is what I told him.

I poured some Meow Mix into one of the cat bowls. When I opened the back door, the orange cat moved away from the door, probably because he expected to get blasted with the noise from the air-horn (which we were doing last week to encourage him to stay away).  He moved to the side of the porch and looked at me.  I swear the expression on his face was priceless, as if he wanted to know why I had been so rude to him last week.

"I'm sorry if we scared you," I told him. (Yes, I talk to cats. And dogs.  Don't laugh... you'd be surprised at how much they truly understand when they've heard your words enough times.)  I put the food bowl down in the usual spot near the door and I came back into the house.  Within seconds, the orange cat was at the bowl and eating the Meow Mix.  I watched him for a minute or two and I noticed that his body was thinner than it had been when he was eating the Meow Mix on a more regular basis. (That was before we decided that if we stopped feeding him, he'd go away.)

This orange cat, for all of his sometimes-unfriendly behavior, has decided that this is where he wants to be.  As I type, he's out on the front porch, sleeping on the cushions of the wicker sofa. He has forsaken his usual sleeping spot on the back porch because it's very windy tonight and the back porch is getting all of that wind.

Sometimes the universe unfolds in ways of its own, and you just have to go with it.  This orange cat thinks we're worth another try, even after multiple air-horn blasts and a week of Meow Mix deprivation.

I didn't want another cat. I am not claiming this orange/white cat, but he has claimed all of us.  I will feed him when he's outside on our porch.  I won't try to scare him away, I will not ignore him. I have put the catch-cage back into the garage because this cat has already proven to us that he's smart enough to stay away from a catch-release cage. Our two outside cats, Gatsby and Mickey, will just have to make friends with the orange cat in their own good time.

Oh well.  One good thing...... I haven't named this orange/white stray, so I guess he's not really ours.  However, I have been calling him "Orange Kitty."  That, in itself, is a name.  Oh well.

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad you have another cat?