The New Cato

Cato is the name I had given to a light-coloured Bengal-patterned cat who started appearing around my apartment building last year. It turns out that he is an owned cat, with another name, who is (now) neutered. I don’t like him roaming, but at least he is not making new homeless cats. Since he has his own name, I decided to transfer his old one to a new cat, also a Bengal-patterned fellow, though darker. And this one I think has no home.

This Cato has not been showing up for long and has been appearing mainly after dark, when it is difficult to differentiate him from his namesake. Yesterday, he arrived during daylight. He was hungry but not, I believe, starving: he ate about two thirds of a large tin of soft-food. He consumed a little hard-food but not enough to suggest that he was famished. He looks well-fed, and groomed, and is not feral; I was able to touch him, and he seems friendly. I think he would have come into the apartment if I had allowed him. But outside, he has the watchful, wary attitude of a lost or abandoned cat. As well, there is something amiss with his right eye: the whole orb looks a dark blue.

This brings to four the number of outsider-cats who come to Café Cosy, though none patronises the restaurant on a regular basis. Aside from the new Cato, there is, of course, Sable (quite feral) and her friend, Arliss (who doesn’t seem feral but shy). Then there is Cicero, a very timid fellow, with white and, I think, very dark tabby markings, distinctive on his back. He has been so scared that he has run if I made eye contact with him from inside my apartment. But that is changing, and while previously he fled when I tried putting soft-food out for him, he now waits by the fence and watches me. Associating me with sustenance and assistance is a first step.

But Cato is another matter, someone who might benefit almost right away from being sheltered. He is distinctive enough to be recognized on local lost-and-found websites but I have not seen him on any. As he may be homeless, I will try, when opportunity permits, to gain his friendship. He may appreciate that.