Way back in mid-September, a stray kitten showed up at our house. I noticed her one morning when I was out doing chores, in the morning before work. It was dark, and I saw a pair of eyes catch in the beam of my head lamp. I followed it, and thought it either had to be a cat or a skunk. Luckily for me, when I stooped down by the car and looked under, a little kitten peeked out at me (no skunk, thank goodness). She was scared though, and ran away when I tried to reach out to her.
The next couple days I worked on trying to tame her. I could hear her meowing when I was outside, so I'd sit on the front porch with a bowl of catfood, shaking it and meowing back. She was very talkative, and we'd have "conversations" meowing back and forth at each other. Finally she'd jump on the porch, but would run away if I'd move.
Eventually I was able to hover my hand over her head as she ate, and when I thought I had a chance of actually catching her, I lowered my hand down to hold onto her. She calmed down almost immediately, and started purring.
She was so friendly right from the moment I touched her, so I think she was probably dropped off here. A feral cat would not have been nearly as friendly.
I took her to our local spay/neuter clinic to have her tested for FeLV/FIV, because if she was positive she couldn't stay here and risk infecting our other cats. She was negative for both, and they estimated her age at 3 months (that was end of September). She weighed about 3 lbs. They also dewormed her for me.
I brought her in the house a few times so she'd get used to the kids and dogs.
The dogs LOVE her, and they try to cover her with kisses whenever they can.
She's not going to be an inside cat, though I guess she can come in from time to time. We've already got 1 inside cat, and I really don't care to keep cleaning out litter boxes. We do have a mouse problem in the barn, so she'll be a mostly outdoor cat and mouser.
It has been very cold the past few days, so she and Tucker (our other outside cat) came inside for a bit to visit and warm up. (They also have a heat lamp in the barn, so they stay plenty warm.
I named her Kiki. I started to name her Henrietta, but it didn't really fit her. I was calling "kitty kitty" all the time, so Kiki just sort of evolved. Miss Kiki has an appointment on December 1 to be spayed. We don't need any more kitties showing up around here. :-)
