From Whence He Came

           When feeding strays for a while, you begin to know whose kitten is whose.  But one day, I realized it wouldn’t hold true all the time.  A strange kitten showed up.  Now, whose kitten is that?  It was a young male tabby dark gray in color. He was not yet full grown.  In the weeks to follow, I could see he was growing.  But yet, he was still slender.  He stayed a distance, but finally allowed me to rub him.  There came a little more rubbing each day.  I couldn’t rub him on the stomach though as he pushed me away with his paws and began biting when I tried.  A cat truly trusts when one allows rubbing their most vulnerable area (stomach).  As he got fully grown, he stayed away more as male cats do.  But he came back for feeding.  He constantly looked over his shoulder for other male cats to show up.  There were several males showing up for feeding.  There was Bushel, Cotton tail, Fireball, Rags, Scared, Curly and others.  He continued eating in their presence.  But they all took off running when Fuzzy Wuzzy came.  There would be a fight if they stayed around.  Fuzzy Wuzzy was the dominant one and obviously they all were invading his territory.

In the days, and even weeks to follow, here would come running my male cat friend.  Since I did not know who his mother was, and definitely not his father, I gave him the name Illa.  It was short for illegitimate.  I really got to love him.  Our back yard is not level.  It’s a drop off.  From the bottom of the hill, Illa would come running.  He had a straight run to the picnic table where I was opening cans and putting out dry food for the strays.  He came to me and started eating.  Before I could get all the food out and water changed, Illa was almost ready to go.   The whole time he ate, he watched for other male cats.  I stood over him as a protective shield.  I finally got to rub him on his stomach.  I knew then that this stray was mine.

I fed the strays twice a day.  It was in the morning and in the evening.  They all learned the feeding times.  I watched for my Illa.  I was becoming so attached to him.  I took pride in that this cat had come to love me too.  This could have gone on forever, but it wasn’t in the cards.

On December 18, 2011, we were going to Knoxville to visit my daughter and her family.  My son and I put out plenty of cat food that morning for the strays.  We didn’t plan to stay any longer than the day.  But I wanted to make sure the strays were okay if we did stay overnight.   I had seen Illa the day before.  He was on my mind.  I actually was going to miss seeing him that day.  That night we came home.  The next morning when feeding the strays, there was no Illa.  December 17, 2011, was the last time I saw my friend.

When reading up on feeding strays, it says to expect a lot of deaths.  The survival rate out there is around 5 years for a stray.  Of course, Illa was no more than two years.  With so many male cats around, he may have just moved on.  But I keep going out for feedings and expecting that male cat to come running to me.  I didn't really own Illa and he didn't really own me.  But I never expected him to take with him a little bit of my heart.  I really did get attached to him.  I can only hope Illa is still out there and I will see him again.  If not, he is locked in my memory forever.