There are three cats in my neighborhood that I see quite often. There are of course more that visit from time to time, but these three are constant companions.
There’s an older black cat. It’s been around, and it is getting old. I’d put it at maybe 10 years old. When it first started coming by it was rough. You could count the ribs, and it ate with a kind of quiet desperation. I took it upon myself to try and see it got full, but especially in the beginning that would be several bowls of food. Not cat sized bowls, human ones.
There’s a grey cat. It’s also older. Probably 8 years old. Fur is coarse, but it’s relatively well groomed. The black cat defers to it when it comes around, which leads me to assume it’s female. It also wasn’t looking very full, though it wasn’t obviously starving.
There’s a younger black cat. Probably 3 years old, with a damaged ear and a bit of a loner attitude. It comes to eat and polishes off quite a bit before it walks away.
All three of them are regular visitors. They come by for breakfast and dinner, and spend quite a bit of time sleeping on the padded chairs just outside my office. The older black one will take a pat, the others aren’t comfortable with the idea. None of them will accept a person in shoes, though if you keep your distance they won’t bolt if you’re in the yard.
I’d like to think they have homes. I’d like to think they come for the food and stay because it’s comfortable, but then go home when they are done. I’d like to think that.
I don’t know it though, and it’s a cold winter. My furniture isn’t as warm as a house, but it’s padded, and out of the wind. My yard isn’t amazing, but it’s enclosed, which keeps the dogs and other scary animals out. The food is plain, but plentiful. It’s not much, but it’s more than nothing, and a part of me feared that nothing was all they had.
I’ll feed them, twice a day, for as long as they come back, until they finally don’t. Until they don’t need this anymore, or until they’re no longer here to need it.