For the past six days or so, the kitten that showed up on my back porch has greeted me in the morning outside my door, with her wide eyed adopted father Stripes...but, not this morning!!!
Stripes was there when I opened the door, staring up at me with the look of hunger in his eyes, alone and absent of his newly found, adoring sidekick (I haven't named her yet)
If I wasn't so old and weakhearted as a result...the missing kitten probably would not have bothered me as much as it did; after not finding her anywhere within sight or sound. I'm getting too soft - I tell ya...!!!
While Stripes eagerly chomped on the food laid down, I formed a one-man search party with myself and went hunting the general area. My heart was sinking, as my mind went in the worse possible direction.
We do have some predatory critters around here, that might hurt a little kitten if they were hungry enough and there are also birds of prey that circle above; like eagles and hawks.
One positive vision that came to mind, which helped a bit, was the thought that maybe she was reunited with her mother somehow. Perhaps her mom passed back through and finding her little, lost baby, they went prancing away with lingering smiles???
Hours went by... I searched the yard over and over again to no avail...
THEN... calling to her about the tenth time, my eyes glanced up and I spotted the top of a little head with big ears attached, sticking up from the rain gutter of the porch roof.
That tiny thing had gone up the old, rickety, wrought iron staircase like she had done once before and found a new, comfortable spot to safely take a nap.
How'd I miss her?!?!? I checked up there at least twice over the past few hours.
Of course I was more relieved to see her cute little face staring down at me, meowing, than I was angry at the little devil...
She hopped out of the gutter and perched upon the roof tiles, staring at me after I climbed the steps, but refused to follow me down; the little runt.
My thoughts were, she still was a bit timid about getting close, so I backed down the fire-escape stairs expecting her to follow; especially since I beckoned her with those silly kissing sounds cats usually respond to.
NOPE…!!!
She didn't budge, so I tried luring her with a fresh bowl of food, which didn't do the job either.
"Maybe she wasn't feeling well?" I thought... after all...kittens are usually anxious to eat every couple of hours or so.
With that in mind, I decided to just sit on the porch and wait for her to scurry down on her own, when ready.
About a half hour or so, I stepped back into the yard to peer up and see what was going on. She was staring down at me crying and pacing back and forth, then precariously positioning herself near the edge of the roof as if she wanted to jump...!!!
Hence, no pictures of this, because I had to act quickly. It's about a twelve to fifteen foot drop from where she was to the yard. I know cats are very agile and have 'nine lives' and all that, but this thing is a kitten!!! Besides...I don't know anything about her past; she may have already escaped death eight times and this will be her last!!!
Now that I was back up the steps, encouraging her to follow me down seemed to be helping a little, but the tiny thing was still, seemingly unable to process and kept crying and crying.
Stripes came running up the steps to check things out. Together we tried to get her to follow. It seemed that she forgot how to come down steps, or something about doing that was scaring her.
Fortunately, I eventually managed to lure her into following me down, with a bowl of adequately, odorous canned cat food in hand...
The kitten is fine now. She even let me pet her while she was eating... I'll probably be able to sneak some flea meds between her shoulder blades soon.
Both Stripes and the kitten are laying together on the back porch as I'm writing this. Things seem to be back to normal.
Thinking back over the ordeal, it occurs to me that I've been speaking English to the kitten; maybe that's why she didn't understand me??? She could have come from Mexico or Scandinavia or some place like that...???
I don't know... I'll test her tomorrow with a few phrases I know in other languages.
Till then, my friends...stay well and be happy.
Ciao
Be Kind to Stray Cats (Especially, Kittens)