Friday, March 13, 2020

Sable?

I have not seen Sable and her sister, Sablette, for a long time. These two all-black cats used to come rather frequently, if not regularly, to eat from the food-bowl I maintain for outsider-cats. When I would see them, I would feed them soft-food, as well, often enough for them to start asking for it when they came to visit. Then, they stopped coming. I feared something had happened to them.

Last night, a single black cat showed up at the edge of my ‘patio’, the concrete ditch beyond my outside door. She - I use the feminine pronoun for convenience - was skittish, but came to eat soft-food from a dish when I placed one on the ground. She was hungry: she ate half a three-ounce tin of Fancy Feast, then the rest of it. She cleaned her bowl but remained close at hand, so I emptied the remains of a tin of Merrick (about three more ounces) that no one inside had wanted. She was eating that when I went to bed, being already thirty minutes late for sleep. (Forgive the poor quality of the photo; it was taken in minimal light between courses served to my visitor.)


This morning, it had snowed, and a thick layer of precipitation lie on the ground. The bowl was covered in snow, but had been previously licked clean. Whoever she was, she had been hungry. There was no other sign of her.

Was she Sable? This one was less confident than I remember Sable, so it may have been Sablette, the more timid sister. But if Sable had lost her sister, or had suffered some other trauma since I had last seen her, who knows how she would now behave. Then again, it may have been a different cat all together. I will ask my neighbours if they have observed this cat, and who they may think she is. If she is Sable or Sablette, where has she been all this time, and what happened to her sibling? If not, who is she?

The most I can assert for sure is that she had a good meal, perhaps for the first time in a while.

11 comments:

  1. I can only imagine how much she enjoyed the feast, hopefully she'll be back for more.

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  2. Oh, the sweetie, I'm so glad she left with a fully tummy, whoever she was. Lots of love and purrs to her. ♥

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  3. Whoever it was, you made their day much better.

    Unfortunately, there are a lot of outside cats in my neighborhood—some strays/ferals, some not. I’ve gotten used to not seeing some of them for weeks or months, and then they turn up again. Such are the ways of cats.

    I hope Sable and Sablette are well, wherever they may be.

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  4. It really doesn't matter who the cat is. She was able to get a good meal and she learned that someone cared about her. Hopefully she will be a frequent visitor to the Cozy Cafe.

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  5. Hopefully she slept well with a full tummy. Good on you for looking after the locals.

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  6. It would be nice to know if it is Sable or Sablette come back, but that cat had a really good feed whoever it is, and would have appreciated it.

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  7. I am very grateful to you for this act of kindness. It's what I have learned to expect and it makes me, all the way over here, very happy when I read such good news! I'm smiling all over! Thank goodness that wonderful filling meal was eaten before the snow came.

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  8. Luck was on her side, with the bad weather coming in the same night.
    Where ever she hid, and which ever cat she is, a full tummy made things
    less severe. Glad you had extra on hand to give out on unexpected
    notice. Sorry to hear you had more snow. Getting tiresome waiting
    on Spring!

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  9. Food in the belly of a hungry cat is worth so much more than we'll ever know!

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  10. I suspect we'll never know for sure, but I'm sure whoever it was, she was very thankful for the good meal.

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  11. We do what we can for our visitors. We recently returned Curly and Fanny (our TNR ferals) to the yard and Curly came back a few times and now is gone for a week. Fanny is still coming so we hope the big fellow is alright and just on a patrol

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