Four kittens have been providing us with entertainment for the last few weeks. They appear to make their home in the trees and underbrush that separate our yard from the farm next door. Every once in awhile they come out onto our lawn to roughhouse, chase grasshoppers, chase each other along the fence rail, or get a drink from the water bowls that my wife sets out for the birds. Two are orange, like the one below, one is mostly white and the other mostly black.

The black one tends to stay hidden much of the time, though when he does come out he will romp and play as vigorously as the others. My wife thinks he is a she, but we haven’t gotten close enough to them to enquire about their preferred pronouns.

The mother of these kittens, we call her Miss Calico, comes to our door several times a day to beg for food. The word seems to have gotten out that our home is a ready source of sustenance for hungry cats. The kittens are big enough now that my wife takes a dish of cat food out to a place near the trees. As soon as she is gone, they appear and scarf it down.

We call the mother Miss Calico even though she has a family. Cats do not form long term relationships with other cats, only with humans. Which brings me to Hobo, another cat that appeared from nowhere and has taken up residence on our doorstep. Miss Calico is a feral cat, she trusts us enough to come and ask for food, but will not respond when we talk to her.

Hobo talks to us, we don’t understand the words but the essence of it seems to be “I like you and want to move into your home.” He begins to purr loudly as soon as we touch him. This responsiveness to humans is evidence that he once was somebody’s pet. We suspect that as he grew the owners balked at the cost of neutering him and dumped him off far from their home, trusting that he would fend for himself.

In Hobo’s mind, fending for himself means finding a new home among people. Though cats do not form long term bonds with other cats, they certainly do with people. We already have one house cat, Pookie, who showed up on our doorstep as a kitten 12 years ago, walked in when I opened the door and has taken ownership of our home. He is not enthused about allowing another cat in. We are still debating what to do.