How a Cat Comes to Live with People

Alley, my orange tabby, passed away about a day and a half ago. As I go through the hours since I am remembering many of the things which made her special to me. This is the story of how my little golden stray cat came to live with me.

Alley came to stay with my roommate and I back in the early Autumn of 2003. October 11 was the day my little stray cat decided to come into the apartment and stay awhile. We had seen her hiding out in the bushes of an empty apartment house next door. She'd go up on the back porch now and then, looking to get in. I realize now that she probably used to get let in by that door and lived there. I'm sure that when the people moved out of that place they left her behind; which is sad because she didn't know why. I'm guessing they couldn't take her with them.

We had found out that other people in our building had been putting out occasional food for this stray cat; which is why Alley was always around our building. Both Stephanie and I spotted Alley many times and tried to get her to come to us. Over the course of about a month we managed to win her trust, and the little orange tabby would let us both get close enough to pet her. We found out she was a friendly cat because one of the first things she would do when one of us would bend down to pet her is hop up so her head met the hand. Then we could pet her by rubbing her head; she loved head rubs and being scratched under the chin. It took me a long time to get that right, but Steph had it down pat.

Stephanie, my roommate, and I decided to put out food and water and an old orange blanket I had. The apartment we had was a first floor unit with a huge old side porch for an entrance. Alley would come up for food, once we showed her where the food and water dishes were. At first we weren't sure it was our stray cat eating the food, until one morning Stephanie had me look out the window and we watched as our little stray cat was having breakfast. We realized soon after that she was also sleeping on the blanket at night. She stayed out of sight from us for awhile. I think this is because one early morning, as I was leaving for work around 4 AM, I startled her. That's how we found out she was using the blanket for sure. I'm guessing the other people in the building figured out we were taking care of this stray cat because they stopped putting food out. Alley moved onto our porch and remained an outdoor cat during the day.

October came, and it was starting to get colder at night. I got worried about the little stray cat on our porch getting cold. Little did I know that cats can handle this. Stephanie decided to try and coax Alley inside a little at a time. Stephanie knew more about cats than I did; I never had one before, let alone a stray one. So during the next two weeks Stephanie got Alley to trust her enough to come into the apartment, slowly at first; Alley would come in, look around, and go back outside. With the first few times, Alley came to the doorway and looked in, then slowly come inside and check the place out. It took awhile for her not to feel trapped the first day she stayed in the apartment. This former stray cat would slowly want to stay in more, a little longer each time. Eventually she picked out a chair that would be hers and both Stephanie and I decided not to use the chair anymore because it was now Alley's chair. The chair was in the living room, and even though no one pointed the chair out to the cat, she just walked over one day, hopped up then curled up and that was her chair. Alley would eventually sleep there, or on the couch with Stephanie. We moved the food and water bowl inside when we determined that the stray cat was here to stay. We had them near the front door to make the her feel welcome to come and go as she pleased. Alley ate from the food bowl, but that quickly turned to a side dish as we found out this little cat was used to, and loved, people food.

The first few nights Alley stayed with us in the apartment I was worried about knowing when the cat would have to do her "duties". Steph told me Alley would let us know, and sure enough both the people and cat developed a routine to let Alley in and out. Its funny now because, even though the former stray cat would eventually have a litter box and would use it, she still would prefer to go outside throughout the 5 ½ years I had her. The routine we developed back then, stayed constant the whole time. It was a simple routine; Alley would go to the door, look back at you and give a certain meow that meant "I'd like to go out now". And if you didn't see her, she'd come up to you and tell you and then head for the door. When Alley wanted back in, she would scratch twice and meow somewhat loudly so you would hear her. One of the first times we started doing this I swore to Stephanie that the meow Alley made sounded like "thank you". This is when I found out that cats can have different meows for different meanings. That alone, would develop over the years to a whole vocabulary;and I still don't know how I understood it all.

Stephanie would move on, but Alley remained with me. The formerly stray cat and I went through two more homes, a dog and two other cats since that day. So if anyone tells you that pets don't choose who they live with, don't believe them.