Winter Visitors

This is not Chaiyka!

Over the past couple of months or so, we have been visited by a very sweet fellow we have dubbed “Chauncey” – (as in “Chauncey Gardener” – he likes “being here” – as opposed to "Being There" - wink wink). Chaiyka has been bringing him over for snacks and a quick warm-up, and we have therefore suspected he lives nearby. As you can see here, he spent some time visiting over the holidays, and was mainly interested in watching the others and having a little nap here and there (so many places to chose from!).

But Wednesday morning as I was heading out to work, he was huddled on our porch, on a few old pillows we have available to whoever may need them, looking very cold indeed. This was very unusual for this time of day.

Note the Great Manitou of the Townships of the East standing guard!.

When I came home from work, I was told by the resident cat wrangler that Chauncey had spent the whole day inside our house! He tried to shoo him out a couple times, but didn’t seem to have any interest in going back outdoors, and who could blame him! As we were discussing what to do, the door-bell rang, and opening the door we saw a somewhat distraught looking young girl, with boyfriend in tow, clutching a bag of kitty treats (we all know that shaking a bag of those often produces positive results when searching for a cat). As we are pretty much known in the neighborhood for having a few felines (yes, a few – less than a dozen, ok ;), it was logical to check at our place for their missing kitty! Oh my goodness, what a wave of relief came upon her face when we informed her he was indeed inside. Alas, we could not produce him instantly to give to them as he was “hiding” in the basement, and so we took their phone number and promised to call upon Chauncey’s reappearance. Sure enough, up he eventually came, probably lured by the smell of kitty dinnertime, and before long, Chauncey, whose real name is Noomi, was lovingly and happily reunited with his Mom. Apparently it had been quite an ordeal for all concerned, as he had been outside all the previous night, hence his rather desperate demeanor on our porch that morning. We are surmising that perhaps the large snowfall caused him to lose his bearings, and our house was the first familiar looking place and he decided to stay put. Poor little guy – cold and hungry – how could we not let him in! As Laura in Alaska says, and I paraphrase, when someone comes to your door in the cold of winter, you let them in.

A funny thing though, when Noomi’s Mom came to collect him, she spotted Chaiyka and told us that HE has been at HER house for snacks! Luckily, her place is just a short jaunt across to the back of the garden and around the fence, which in winter of course becomes a bit more tricky to navigate. Some crazy cat people have been known to shovel little kitty paths around the yard, so the little darlings can romp around a bit in the dreary winter months when it’s not too dreadfully cold. As if we don’t have enough to shovel for the human traffic!!

And then there’s Rascal. We still don’t know what his status is. He appeared several times over the holidays very VERY hungry, but still furtive. We think he may have some sort of a home, but probably not a very good one. The kind that whether the cat is in or out is of no concern. Certainly not the type of owners that shovel kitty paths! Here he is visiting the inside of our house for the very first time – but he really didn’t seem to want to stay. Gee, I wonder if Mr. Poole’s steady glare might have had something to do with his urge to vacate the premises! The picture below is a bit dark, but if you look closely, you can see he is climbing the drapes as if to say “Let me outta here!!!!”

(Please excuse messy kitchen!)

It’s Friday, so take a look at what else is going on over at The Friday Ark.