Cat Distraction
This post is about the new cat in my life.
I had big plans for my day, but I got sidetracked. Here is where my spouse and I would joke that that’s the Title of My Memoirs™️…I’m easily distracted. My brain churns so quickly from thought to thought that I’m thinking about the task at hand but then something reminds me about a different uncompleted chore. But before I can take action on anything, I look out the window and see a dark shape sitting on the back deck.
It is a fluffy, long-haired, black cat. I’ve been seeing them in our backyard off and on for months now. They first started coming around when the neighborhood’s resident indoor/outdoor cat Stuffy Cat died. I assumed it was just a natural extension into neighboring territory once Stuffy Cat wasn’t around to keep this black cat out of his space.
The first few times I saw this fluffy black cat we would make eye contact through a window, and it would bolt immediately. I would often see it mousing near the bird feeders in the back yard near dusk. Sometimes, it would be underneath my spouse’s car. Anytime it would see a human though, it would immediately leave the vicinity.
One time I saw it from ground level through my basement window and thought I saw a collar around their neck. I’ve never seen it from any other angle though…I assume because their fur is so long. It looks large, so I thought it was well-fed. I am starting to wonder if it is just an illusion because of their fluffy, long fur.
It has been really cold lately here in Minnesota. The snow hasn’t been sticking around too much, only a thin layer coats the ground currently, but this morning we had a moderate Cold Weather Advisory for “very cold wind chills as low as 26 below.” Even though I have lived in Minnesota for the majority of my life, I do not play around with weather advisories. Whenever I see one, I share them with my local, inner circle too.
I’ve seen people ignore the summer heat advisories (because they are so used to living life with air conditioning that they no longer fear the sun’s power) and end up getting heat stroke. In the winter, people often ignore the cold weather advisories too. They assume that because they see animals outdoors in the cold that somehow they are magical beings who know when it is safe to be outside and when it isn’t. But just like houseless people die every year because they don’t have shelter to protect them from the weather, animals do too!
I am always concerned with the animals in my yard, and I try to make decisions on how to shape the environment to their benefit. I put out bird seeds, nuts, and corn every other day or so. We get birds, squirrels, opossums, raccoons, rabbits, cats, and even sometimes turkeys! In the winter, when it is so cold that the bird bath is frozen solid, I have a heated water bowl plugged in on the top deck. It gets a lot of visitors because I don’t know of any other fresh water sources nearby.
Even though I put the outdoor animal food down on the ground, spread out and in bowls, I’ve only been putting the cat food up near the heated water bowl. One of our cats, Percy, has been on a special diet of cat food made from peas & rabbits. Our other cat, Eddy, chewed some holes into the bag which made it kind of stale, so Percy refused to eat it. It was hella expensive, so I’ve been putting bowls of the stale stuff out on the back deck. I keep it up high because I don’t want the rabbits to become cannibals. (They are the only animals that I’ve never seen up on the deck. Does anyone know if they can do stairs?)
This fluffy black cat has been coming every day around 1pm to eat the special rabbit food. Today, when I looked outside and saw this black cat just sitting on the top deck near the water bowl, I knew it was waiting for me to feed it. It was 1:33pm, and I had forgotten to put food out for it.
I was surprised that it was just hanging out. Although, we have been making progress lately. A few days ago, I had the back door open with only the screen door closed so that our cats could look out into the yard. (The only time they are currently tolerating each other in such close proximity is when they are looking out the back door together.) As I was moving around in the kitchen, I saw the fluffy black cat start coming up the deck steps towards the food and water.
Once it saw that the door was open, with two cats looking at it, I fully expected the fluffy black cat to turn and run. Instead, it hesitantly came up to eat and drink while the cats and I watched through the screen door. As that was happening, I asked my spouse if he would take our cats into the other part of the house so I could try to open the back doors to see if this fluffy cat would come inside.
I hid behind the door that was opened inside while the outer door was opened in the opposite direction. My heart was racing. I was trying to peek through the crack in the door without giving away my position. I could feel the cold air coming in while I stood so still that I locked up my muscles. My phone vibrated with a notification before I switched it to Do Not Disturb.
There’s no way to tell how many minutes passed while I stood there. The fluffy black cat was very cautious but slowly started inching towards the threshold. I think I even held my breath as they walked through the open doors. As soon as they got to the front edge of the open inside door, they looked around the edge. Immediately, they saw me, turned around, and scurried away.
I was so amped up with adrenaline that by the time I got the doors closed and went to talk to my partner, I was still trying to slow my heart rate and breathing. While I was telling him what happened, I burst into an uncontrollable flow of tears. I attempted this exact thing with a feral cat years ago but was never able to get them inside completely.
Today, when the cat was already waiting on the deck to be fed, I thought I would try again. We do a little dance where it retreats off the deck and further into the yard when I bring out the food, and only once I am inside with a door shut will it advance towards the bowls of food and water. Once my cats are secure in a different part of the house, I open up both back doors, put a Churu treat into a bowl on the deck, and just wait.
It takes longer to come back, and I almost give up completely. Instead, I tell my spouse that I am headed out the front door, so I can circle around the side of the house to the back. The idea is that I will wait until the cat is all the way inside and then get the outer door shut behind them.
I am in winter boots but only a short jacket, not a thick winter coat. Thankfully, it has a hood which I put up as I wait at the corner of my house peeking into my back yard to see the cat on the deck. I do wonder for a brief moment what my neighbors would think was happening if they saw me creeping around, trying not to make noise, and just standing very still watching something intently.
After the cat eats the cat food and Churu treat in the bowls, they start to carefully make their way into our house. I try so hard not to ruin the moment by heading over too soon. I wait until their entire tail has disappeared inside before I round the corner into my back yard. My boots make noise as I move quickly on the snow. The cat hears me and scurries out of the house and off the farther side of my deck before I even make it to the stairs.
A disappointment to be sure! I head inside for a repeat conversation with my spouse where tears are tumbling down my cheeks as I relay what happened. While I was not successful in getting the cat inside our house with the doors closed, it still feels like progress. This fluffy black cat has now willingly, albeit cautiously, attempted to enter my home twice. I am not deterred from the end goal of getting this cat inside somewhere warm.
I messaged my neighbors on both sides of our house to tell them about this cat. I tell them all the crucial information including that their left ear appears to be clipped/tipped which indicates that they may be a TNR cat that lives outdoors without a home or owner. My neighbors talk about how it is too cold for cats to be outside. I concur and tell them about how I’m trying to get them inside. One of my neighbors says that she will set up a bed for it in her garage that is always open a little for animals to shelter as needed.
The next time I attempt this, I am going to leave the bowl with the Churu treat inside the kitchen with the doors open. Even if it just comes in long enough to eat it before they run away, perhaps it will trust me/our space more for future attempts. One of my friends has kindly offered to lend me their live trap. I am very tempted even though I have no experience with them. I put up a post on NextDoor to see if any of my neighbors will claim this cat before I attempt to trap it.
I started writing a little synopsis about how I got distracted by a cat and wasn’t able to write a post today. But then instead of a short little note, it ultimately turned into this piece when I actually sat down to write it. I hope that one day in the near future I will publish a follow up detailing how we eventually got this cat into a warm, safe space. I’m open to tips and tricks on how to get a potentially feral cat to trust you, so if you know of anything that may help, please feel free to leave a comment! I’m also accepting well wishes and good vibes too. 😎
~The Overstimulated
