An Early New Year's Visitor

There was an early New Year’s Eve guest at Café Cosy last night.

I had seen Arliss with Sable a few nights ago but, as usual, he kept his distance. I had recently bought some new cat-food and no one inside liked it, so I have been leaving it outside over-night for any late patron at the café. The temperatures have been bordering on freezing but the food stayed edibly soft during the dark hours, and was always gone by morning. Before dawn today, I was retrieving the empty bowl and saw Arliss over by the property’s fence.

I tapped the bowl and he appeared interested. Unusually, he was without Sable and, just as unusually, he did not run away when I wanted to talk to him. I wondered if it had been he who had been consuming the bowl’s contents in the night, and was now thinking he would be given more. If so, I wasn’t about to disappoint him.

I hurried to put some food in the bowl, and saw that he was waiting, another unprecedented act. He stayed put, a few yards off, while I placed the bowl on the concrete floor of the ditch, and retreated inside. He came right up to the food, which I’d put near the door, and ate it without sign of trepidation (even while being observed by Zofia). After his meal was done, he moved away, apparently satisfied.

I am pleased at this, as this is the first time I have been able to give Arliss soft-food, barring the possibility that he’s been eating from the over-night buffet; in any case, it was the first time he had remained, waiting, for a meal. I would like to get to know him better. From his girth and the condition of his coat, I can’t judge him homeless, though that is not impossible; the fact that he comes around rarely also suggests another, and on-going, source of food, and certainly shelter. But I would like to win his trust, nonetheless. He’s seen that I provide his friend Sable with food; now, he’s had it personally from my hand.

I hope to see more of handsome Arliss in the new year.