We first saw Tenzing in September of 2022, skittering off the driveway and into the trees. We thought that she had to be one of the neighbors’ cats, but we would see her every few weeks, always running and hiding when we approached. As fall chilled into winter, we became concerned. We called neighbors, but nobody knew who she was.
By December, worried about her, we began setting out cat food and a trail camera. We hoped both to help her survive and to localize her home, but we got only Mr. Fox and Ms. Ringtail:
But careful observation gave me a hint as to where she might be holing up. We have heavy snows and worried that this little kitty could not possibly survive, so we set out more food, but had no way of knowing if we were doing any good for her.
As I deduced more and more about her likely whereabouts, I was able to make better guesses as to where I might put food for her. I finally guessed that she was staying in this thicket of brush under an oak tree:
So I began leaving cat food in the thicket, and somebody ate it. I tried to get food there every day, but sometimes missed a day for some odd reason. In any case, I think that extra food got her through the winter. In early March I began moving the placement of the food towards the house. This was a silly effort on my part; it’s a thousand feet from Tenzing’s hideout to my house:
But Tenzing appreciated the food and began showing up at mealtime, remaining deep inside the thicket and watching as I set out her food. But the next step amazed me: on March 17th of this year, after feeding her I turned to walk home, and she followed me. I stopped, turned, and knelt down to sweet-talk her. She came closer, so I walked a bit further towards my house. She followed, and it took only about 15 minutes to make it all the way to my house. I didn’t have a cat cage, so I simply hoped that she would keep following me. She entered the house voluntarily and then followed me into the bathroom where we keep new faunal family members.
Tenzing has turned out to be an excellent addition to our family. She’s affectionate, tidy, and in perfect health. Having dealt with coyotes, foxes, and raccoons, she’s not the least bit intimated by the two other house cats (Mokey and Bartholomew), who outweigh her 2:1. In fact, they’re a bit scared of her.