Alfred

Alfred, photo courtesy of Two Birds Photography

About a month ago, my neighbor contacted me, inquiring about how to catch two cats who were living in her back yard.  They didn't seem feral but weren't coming close either.  It was the dead of winter, and though she was feeding them, she was concerned about their well-being long term and wanted to catch them.  Not long after, I awoke one morning to meowing coming from the kitchen.  It was strange, because the meow wasn't familiar to me, yet I wasn't imagining it.  I got up to explore it further, and saw a streak of black tail run through the kitchen towards the open pet door.  Ramona is our only cat with a black tail, so I wondered where in the world she was headed in such a hurry, yet a glance at her favorite spot revealed she was fast asleep.  I knew instantly we had an intruder! Sure enough, I looked outside on the deck, and saw a wide-eyed black and white cat staring at me.  Having a strange cat in your house in and of itself is weird enough.  But we have a nearly impenetrable cat fence, which we call the Kitty Gulag, which makes any movement, in or out, virtually impossible.  How had this cat gotten in? 

Over the next few days, I didn't see him.  Surely he was there, as it's difficult to get in the cat fence but even harder to get out.  Yet, a day or two later, my neighbor informed me that he was back at her house.  Amazed, I figured he wasn't coming back to our place.  Until a few days later, when he walked in while Jim and I were watching TV on the couch.  

Jim and I agreed to try to catch the little guy and try to find him a home.  Our neighbor had already discovered that he was trap savvy, so trapping him wasn't an option; we were left with feeding him and slowly trying to earn his trust.  I knew this could take a while, as cats are difficult creatures.

So for several days, this cat would show up at my house for dinner and would show up at my neighbor's house (a quarter of a mile away) for breakfast.  We still had no idea how he was getting in and out of our cat fence with such ease.  A walk of the perimeter revealed no holes or obvious points of entry.  It remains a mystery to us to this day!

On the third or fourth night of feeding this cat, he allowed me to pet him, and he even came out from under a bench to see me.  Instinctively, I decided to try picking him up.  He let me.  With a strange, stray cat in my arms, out in the bitter cold, I suddenly wondered what to do.  We had intended to catch him eventually and find him a home--this was just sooner than I expected.  With Jim off at work, I simply made the decision to take him inside, marching him up the stairs into our spare bedroom.  And there he has stayed.

A very kind friend heard his story, and being the intake coordinator for a rescue organization, she arranged for Alfred to be taken into their program.  They had a foster home available; did we want to surrender him to the organization? This didn't sit right with Jim and me.  It felt like we would simply be passing him off, happy that he wasn't our problem any more.  And leaving that foster home open meant another life could be saved from Animal Control.  So in an instant, without much discussion, Jim and I decided to become foster parents for St. Sophia's Forgotten Felines. We also knew with little discussion that Alfred wouldn't be our last foster.  After filling out the paperwork, we were officially a foster family.  And a few days later, along came Albert (but he's a story for tomorrow).  We don't have any more room in our family for pets (6 cats is really at our max), but we certainly have room in our hearts and our home to help cats become united with their forever families.  It's a lot of work, but it's absolutely right for us.

So, we welcome Alfred to our foster family, and we hope he finds his way to his perfect family soon.  He tried so hard to make his way to us--he just wants to be loved.  He will make some family incredibly lucky.

Alfred is fully vetted--neutered, vaccinated, and viral tested.  He is ready for his loving forever home. Alfred is available on Petfinder, but you can also visit St. Sophia's on Facebook to learn more about how to adopt him.