Hello Kitty!

For the past few weeks, there has been this white cat outside our apartment.

It usually sits in the shaded area on the first floor of our building. Paul and I are on the second floor.

It looks really skinny and dirty, and it doesn't wear a collar. It's a girl and it's not spayed because it has nipples - as if it has just had or will soon be having babies.

I've never seen anyone petting it or calling it. I am pretty sure it's a stray, because it is REALLY friendly. Most cats (those with owners) run away when people try to pet them or come up to them.

Anyway, I am not sure what to do about it. I've searched the internet for several online websites for animal rescue places here. There are a number of places we could take the kitty... but there are so many stray animals, they would probably end up killing it because they can't find it a home.

To have a pet, Paul and I would have to pay about $100 more a month in rent and we do NOT want to do that.

Paul is so sweet, he really seems to care about what happens to this cat as much as I do. I am really surprised at him - I never expected he would care so much. Anyway, for the first time last night, we gave it some food and water. It was probably a mistake because now the cat will never leave... but we know this.

We were thinking maybe we would give it food and water every day, and just let it eat it outside and remain an outside cat. I'm a little scared about it cause I don't want anyone to see us feeding it or thinking it is our cat. I don't want to take it to a shelter where it would just be killed though!!

It reminds me of my cat coconut.

Coconut was my first cat. She was a kitten from a litter of one of our other cats - Ritzy. I watched her being born, and my mom let me pick her out of the litter to be my very own.

Coconut was my best friend. We spoke to each other; we had a language. It was almost like I knew Meowish and she knew English. She knew what I was saying to her when I would ask her questions or tell her to do something. It was an amazing relationship.

She was an outdoor/indoor cat. She would go outside in the morning when I went to school, and play all day outside. Then, at night, when the sun went down I would stand on the front porch and say...
"Cooo Cooooooooooooo!" In a high-pitched voice.

She would immediately come running up the street and into the house.

Every night, coconut slept above my head on my pillow. She not only cleaned her fur, she would also lick my hair and face - give me a nice cleanin'.

Coconut had a place out in our backyard under my mom's lilac tree where she hid a pile of birds, mice, or any other creature she happened to catch in her hunting. She got angry if anyone got near her spot. I was the only one who was allowed to sit with her under the tree in the shade. We would sit and talk about her amazing pile of prey, and what a magnificent hunter she was.

One time, I awoke to my mom saying,
"Be calm Edith... coconut has brought you a gift, don't scream"

I looked down at cococut... she was SO excited. She jumped up on my bed with a small mouse in her mouth. She then very gently layed the mouse on my pillow, and in meowish said,
"Here Edith, this is for you!"

It was a gift you see.

I immediately began praising her...
"Good job coconut!! Thank you so much! But I want YOU to keep it".

So we put the mouse on the floor, and to our surprise, it rolled on its belly and started to run! It wasn't dead. Coconut just patted it with her paws, teasing it... and then she grasped it with her mouth and took it outside to the lilac tree of death.

I don't know what kind of a life this other cat has had. I don't know if it once had a home and was abandoned, or if it has always been a stray. I don't know if it has any diseases. I don't know how old it is. But for now, if the cat can survive outside with a little "charitable nutritional support" from us - like my mom says - then it would be OK. At least until we can find a place that doesn't kill animals.

And if the landlord bothers to notice the cat we can honestly say it isn't our cat.

It really is an emotional dilemma.