| Kseni appeared on our 5th floor patio a few days before Christmas 2008. I thought I saw a shape moving and ,yes, it was a cat. All 5 of our felines were -as usual-snoring around us on the couch and I admit my first though was "It's raining cats...Heaven must be punishing me for some reason!!"  |
It's nearly impossible for a cat to reach our patio, but here she was, maybe a year old and very very frightened. It became clear during the next few weeks that she was feral. She was terrified of humans, scared of our cats and she stayed hidden on the roof. |
Of course hunger grows stronger than fear after a certain point, and she started to come down, eat, drink some water and disappear again. If she happened to notice us watching behind the courtains she would flee without eating.
She spent the winter on the roof. She didnt even use a cat crate I put up there. I was begining to think maybe I should somehow drug her and get her down to the street again. There was no quality of life for a lone terrified cat on a roof...but then Love worked it's magic. We noticed her playing with Fidel, the amputee and it was he who persuaded her to start coming down and eat and play and be less scared of humans.
Since then she spends the cold days and nights of winter in a cat nest with an old woolen sweater ,has her own food and water bowl and is starting to realize that humans often bring nice treats like tuna or chicken. She still keeps a safe distance from us, but her safety zone gets slowly smaller.
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| HM, always on the look-out for a new warm spot,sometimes claims the nest. |
Now, enters Melpo. She didn't like the "intruder" from the start and she is constantly chasing her away.
At first Kseni was mortified.
But with Fidel at her side, she became more daring and since February is claiming her rights to the patio.
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| What can I say? I love him to bits |
Tarcin would love to meet the new girl, but he is Melpo's ally and so he half-heartedly taunts Kseni.
Hopefully Melpo and Tarcin will one day accept the "Stranger's" presence and so we can lure her inside :)
You have an true wild cat! I didnt know for this one.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't know because she was hidding on the roof during your visit :)
ReplyDeleteSuch a mystery that Ksini would end up on your patio without any way to get there...I wonder if the door of your apartment building was open at one point and Ksini wandered in, eventually arriving at your patio?
ReplyDeleteHow nice that you are slowly getting her to trust you and that she has a nice warm place to sleep on cold nights! :)
What a lovely story, I hope one day Ksini will be accepted by your other cats. I am sure she knows she is safe with you, and is probably more at peace now than she has ever been :)
ReplyDeleteKseni is getting closer to us slowly but surely:) we hope by Fall she'll be daring enough to come indoors and spend a lovely warm winter...
ReplyDeleteI ;ll kepp you posted :)