It's Why They Call Me The Cat Woman

There's a new cat in the picture.  Temporarily.

We have 6 steps leading up to our front porch, which has a brick surround. In the brick on the left side, there is what looks like a heat vent that fits into a rectangular hole in the brick. The vent thingee falls out quite often and we have to pop it back in.

Yesterday while I was rolling the trash can back in from the curb, I noticed the gaping hole where the vent had fallen out. Then to my surprise, I saw the head of a large, long-haired black and white cat staring out at me from the vent hole, looking just as surprised, as if I had interrupted a private gathering.

Seeing the cat underneath our house solved the mystery of why Lucy, our other black and white cat, has been sniffing baseboards and then emitting hissing noises for the past week. I thought we had a mouse. Wrong. We have a cat.

I tried calling the kitty out and you can guess where that got me. So I did what any cat lover would do...I set food out.

My concern is this is a pregnant cat or a cat that's recently delivered. Our crawlspace would make a lovely feline birthing facility.

As it stands, I can't put the grate back in because I don't want to trap the cat. But I'm concerned other critters and prowling neighborhood cats will see that as a "Welcome, come on in" invite. So I'll send Blair crawling under the house this weekend to ferret out any kitty squatters.

Somehow, the strays know how to find me...