Kee Kee on the porch
For today’s drawing (sketch) I present the outside stray kitty cat who has made her home under and on our front porch since this past summer. Dubbed (by me) Kee Kee (say Kitty Kitty fast, and you’ll see where it came from), this little kitty is very afraid but very very sweet. A visit to my local vet yielded the following: She’s old (about 9 ish), fixed and declawed on the front paws (something I suspected, but at that time, she wouldn’t let me lift up her paw and check). She definitely had an owner at one time.
For the first month that KeeKee joined us, I did nothing to encourage her to say. I did not feed her. I did not approach her. I simply noted her presence in my flowerbeds, and when I was outside weeding or tending to the garden, I made a big deal of acting as though I had no idea she was there. I did this both for her (because I could tell she was very timid) and for my husband who wanted anything but for me to adopt an outside kitty.
A month went by and I could no longer let her live there and not feed her. She’d cleared out our mole infestation naturally, so that my husband didn’t have to go buy something at The Home Depot to do it chemically. She’d even left a couple of dead moles on my front door mat, as though she were feeding us, her adopted family. I felt I owed it to her to leave some kitty chow out for her.
Slowly I left bowls of water and dry cat food under the bushes in my front garden around the porch. Slowly, I would refill them, in her line of site but made no movement to come near her. Slowly I let her get used to the site of me and understand that she had nothing to fear from me. I would provide her food. I would do what I could to make her comfortable.
Eventually, she came up to me. She let me pet her. She purred. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of winning over the trust of an animal. I do not take it lightly. No matter where she came from, Kee Kee has a place around my home as long as she needs it.
I have set up a shelter on my porch. First it was just a cat carrier. I set it out, and let her decide whether she wanted to use it. When the rains of the summer got too much for her, she did. I started to see her snuggled up inside it at night. Now that it’s getting chilly, a friend of mine has given me an igloo shelter for which I bought an outdoor heated cat pad. I set that all up last night, much to KeeKee’s appreciation. When I checked on her last night, she was snuggled up nice and cozy in the igloo.
I do not know how the winter will go. I do not know if Kee Kee had ever faced a winter outside. She showed up at our house pretty skinny. I’ve done what I can to help fatten her up. I already have an indoor cat, and neither my husband nor my kitty are willing to entertain adding another. Besides, if KeeKee’s been living on her own for a while (which the neighbors think she has) then she’s probably an out of doors kitty and might not do well with the rules and regulations of living indoors (litter box, etc).
So, there you have it. That is my tale to go with this sketch. This is Kee Kee, my new outdoor kitty. The sweetest little old lady you’d ever want to meet.
RSM.
His urging, sufficiently shamed me into putting away the Brushes app and paying attention. I will not say which fulfilled me more: drawing these trees or listening to team-building discussions.
