Late last summer after getting off work, my wife and I pulled up to our apartment. As we were making our way from the parking lot we heard a tiny kitten meow. After some looking around we spotted his bright eyes in some bushes. We slowly walked towards him, but he suddenly darted from the bushes to underneath the cars in the parking lot for protection. He stared and meowed at us hungrily with those glowing golden eyes. We quickly realized that he was too afraid of humans to let us make contact, but that he knew humans had food. So we decided to go to our apartment to retrieve and leave out some canned cat food for him. With his head bobbing up and down he cautiously crawled out from underneath a car toward the food. As he was eating we would slowly walk towards him but he would quickly dart to the bushes or underneath a car. He was definitely interested in us but we decided to take it slow.
So over the course of five weeks or so, we would set out food, see how close we could get, and talk to him. He learned to recognize the sound of our car and run out from his hiding spot when we pulled up. His little baby cry always let us know that he was hungry. One day we decided to keep the food right next to us while we tossed little bits of hard cat food toward him. The little pellets of food would bounce across the concrete while he scurried after them. The more excited we got him about the food, the closer he would get to us. He was finally within petting-distance of us, so we cautiously ran our hand down his back. He was shocked. He had no idea what that was but it felt good! So we then scratched his chin. Suddenly his eyes closed and he fell in love. Having never felt affection before, he just gave into us and started drooling everywhere. Food, pets, and scratches everywhere. He was happy but still had spurts of caution.
We didn't want to scare him too much so we decided to give it another day or two. We wanted to wait until he was more comfortable with us before bringing him into our home. We went back to our apartment and left the food with him.
Suddenly around 11:00 PM that night someone was banging on our door. It was a neighbor and he had the kitten. I decided to open the door and he tossed the kitten inside and said he was ours now. Our neighbor then proceeded to tell us how he caught the kitten... with a hotdog on a string. My wife and I accepted that this little kitten was our responsibility now, and hoped he wouldn't be too scared to stay inside with us. As we predicted, with some food, water, pets, and scratches Oliver the little black kitten had a found a home.
Within a few days after taking Oliver in, we brought him to a veterinarian where he was given all of his vaccinations, and neutered. We have had him for over a year now, and he still drools when he gets lots of love.
