Miss “Snake” Plissken is a stray calico that I started feeding in 2003 and eventually tried bringing into the house. After an operation to have her infected uterus removed in February 2004, Sheryl and I brought her indoors for a about 3 months.
By April, the weather was warming up and Snakey didn’t seem to be adapting to being inside, hiding under the bed or in a crawlspace while we were at home. So with Sheryl and her indoor cat Punkin to be moving in that summer, we let her out. She disappeared for a couple days, but came back again for her morning/evening feed-and-pet-me routine, happy as can be. Except this time it was evident how much weight she had gained and how shiny her coat had become, from all the time she spent relaxing indoors. It was a mixed blessing.
But in early October, she just disappeared. She’d been really affectionate the two days prior, so we thought she was either sick or just trying to tell us someting. With some speculation, we thought perhaps she’d found a new home with the cold coming on. In preparation for the winter, Joe had already started retrofitting for her a small doghouse with insulation and a kitty heating pad. In case she came back, he completed it, placing it under the house overhang where she’d always slept.
To our elated surprise, she returned on Sunday, December 5th, very thin and demanding a full bowl of food, and she immediately took to enjoying warm nights in her new cathouse. She’s back to her twice-daily feed-and-pet me routine, and we’ll be taking her to the vet for her shots soon.
