Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Introducing...Zorro

Let me preface this post by saying we are not cat people.  Never have been, and I dare say never will be.  Seeing as cats and dogs are neck and neck in the popularity polls, I'm probably committing blog suicide by even hinting at the fact that I am not overly enamored by felines.  I'm not against cats, per se.  I am just a bigger fan of the unconditional love of a dog.

Now that I have that off my chest...

It appears we've pseudo-adopted a neighborhood kitty - actually it is more like she has adopted us.  About a year ago we actually caught her (and her two siblings and mom) for a brief minute, only to have to let the babies go when the mom went crazy and escaped the cage we had confined her to.  There was no way we would be able to re-capture the mom, and we didn't have the heart to keep the babies from her - or take them to the SPCA where they would probably be killed immediately b/c they were so young.  Back then we named her Zorro for the black mask splashed across her face.  

Care to guess whose reflection is on our dishwasher?  And I swear in real life you can't see a single scuff mark!  Weird!
As she grew older (and larger) she occasionally showed up in our yard, but for months we always immediately chased her off.  I was so afraid she would try to kill/eat the chickens.  However, after observing her quite a few times, it became apparent she actually just got a kick out of watching them.

Zorro striking a pose
Sweet Zorro
Over time we lost the urge to yell at her, and then we'd say hi when we saw her in the yard.  She's quite "chatty" and she began to tentatively come towards us looking for love (I'm no fool - it was most likely food).  Now she's basically our outdoor cat.  She greets us in the morning.  She even lets us pet her up.  She is still slightly skittish, but overall we've found her - I can't believe I'm saying this - to be a welcome addition to our homestead.  Fortunately it has been an extremely mild winter, or I dare say she'd have found a place IN our home - though I can't even say now with certainty that that is an impossibility. -Carrie
[Trust me, it is. -Jason]