Green Eggs and Cats

There’s a cat living in my backyard.

I do not want another cat. I do not want one on a boat, I do not want one in a moat, I do not want another cat, I do not want one, that is that!

I thought it was the neighbor’s cat but their cat is tuxedo and this cat is gray and black striped. I chased it off the deck one day because my cat was howling to beat heck about it being there.

It occurred to me, when I saw it catch a squirrel one morning, that a cat with a food bowl probably wouldn’t be eating a squirrel. Killing and torturing it for fun? Yes. But not eating it.

I was hoping it wasn’t a stray. I already have a cat and she hates everyone, including other cats, and anyway I already decided she’s my last cat. I don’t want to do anymore pet deaths. I’d like to opt out. They are too much for my heart.

I saw the backyard cat drinking from the wildlife water bowls one morning. I took its picture. Not because it’s adorable and I might already be attached to it (because I do not want another cat, I do not want one that is that) but because at first I thought it was some other wild animal.

Yesterday morning when I went to put corn out for the deer, the cat was in the backyard. It was crying and crying. From a safe distance, though, ‘cause it remembers how I chased it away.

I’m a spineless softy. I know you keep a stray once you feed it, but I felt so badly for its crying that I went into the house and got a can of cat food and opened it and set it out way, way, way in the back yard.

Now I’m researching outdoor winter shelters for cats. Not because I want a cat, (I do not want one that is that!) but because when it gets to be twenty below out, if that cat is still out there, I’m not going to be able to take it. I’ll have to do something, and that something would probably be letting it in and I DO NOT WANT ANOTHER CAT!

I think it’s trying to adopt me.

I remember reading an article that said cats originally decided to live with people, and that they adapted to learn how to cry like human baby, to ensure the humans would take care of them. Or something like that. (I might have skimmed it) Basically cats were not domesticated, they just manipulated humans into adopting them.

Somehow this cat figured out that hanging around my house had good odds. Or maybe it’s the steady stream of rodents that are after the corn and the chance to woo me with its cries is just an extra added bonus? Have I mentioned I do not want another cat?

I do not want one in a tree, I do not want one wooing me, I do not want another cat, I do not want one, that is that!