Strays

This afternoon, as I sat checking my mail, I heard a distinctly pained "MEOW." I looked around; White Cat was eating (as usual); Foof was asleep on the sofa. Neither of them was responsible for the sound, which I promptly followed to the basement.



I opened the door and walked down the rickety stairs to find myself staring into the face of a small gray and white skinny cat; "MEOW," she replied. (It HAS to be a female, and I'm sure she's in heat--I've never heard a male cat emit that particular tone before.)



I tried to get close, but she ran for her point of entry--the broken jalousie window with the metal plate, which was now sitting on the sill, having been knocked out of the window space by the cat. (Apparently I didn't do such a great job of putting it back after moving it yesterday.)



As I worked in the front yard, I was accompanied by the continuing cat-song, punctuated by her return to my basement through the window. I saw her going in, but when I tried to chase her out, she jumped in instead.



At the end of the day, when I put all the tools away, I went down to make sure she was out and the window was back in place....



She wasn't. And the entire basement just REEKED of cat piss--including several of my recently-washed pieces of laundry, which had endured the misfortune of being left at the bottom of the hamper.



LJ said later that he'd heard a massive catfight in the basement earlier, but thought it was just Foof having her ass kicked by White Cat; judging from Whitey's reaction to the interloper when she came back around and perched on the kitchen windowsill, I would guess SHE was the victim and provocateur, not Foof.



And she hasn't left yet.