I meant to update this two days ago when His Royal Blackness made a very unexpected return! When I saw him (I had given him up for lost) I did a double-take. Was it really  him? After all, black cats are hard to distinguish from each other unless you really know them. I’ve never had a problem in identifying my black cats, but this was definitely him. HRB is cross-eyed (as this boy appeared. He also has a slight white patch underneath his chin. Yes, this handsome black boy had returned and he was not limping, his breathing was slow and regular. He vanished June 25. When he disappeared, so did part of my heart. He may be full feral, but he is still greatly loved here.

I believe what might have happened, is he just went to ground, fell asleep and because black cats possess the highest immune systems of any of the strays, he regenerated instead of dying. So thrilled to see him. I wanted to run up and hug him but failing that, I settled into a lounge chair and just quietly sat, watching him.

He was outside of the shop and pretty soon the other cats came out. Instead of him getting all puffy and ticked off, I watched in amazement as the waltzed up to each of the six cats and rubbed his signature on each one of them! They were friends now. In my heart I knew, he has finally found a home.

Before his disappearance, if I made any sort of a move toward him, he would hiss and bare his teeth at me before fleeing. I had to feed the clowder, so I just started popping cans open. HRB started towards me- then he stopped and just watched.

Making sure that I did not even look in his direction, I eased out of my chair and walked over the feral feeder dished out the food and then sat back down. He went into the cat door of the shop, stuck his head out the entrance and waited. This game of chess was on. It was my move next.

Every part of me was screaming to just walk over to him and see if I could inspect him. The old Mary Anne would have done that, but his actions prior to all of this showed me he is a cat who wants to live his life on his terms, not necessarily on mine. I just got up and started into the house. I turned around to see what he did. Would he vanish again or would he stay? He came out of the shop and jumped on to the feeder table. I could see a great deal of missing hair on his once-injured leg. There was no pronounced limp. His sides were not heaving up and down. Despite being so injured, giving my vet the hardest time of his career (my vet’s words not mine!) He was fine! As I went into the house, I sent a prayer skyward thanking God for returning him back to a place that will love him (from a social distance) for the rest of his life. I believe he has perhaps seven lives left?

He is still here. He will come out when I am outside now. He will not approach me, but he does not flee when he sees me. I have seen him in the last few days, from my bay window more than I did before. This morning, when I just went out to feed, he came completely out of the shop and meowed at me! He started towards me. Just like Twist, I could sense that he really wanted to be petted. Twist is also black and she is a mere slip of kitty now four years old. But due to inbreeding, her growth was stunted and she looks more as if she is 6 months old size-wise. I know both kitties want the connection with me. I also know from my many years of working and watching strays that if I do approach them and “try” to make them like me, all the effort put in to bring about trust, that WILL vanish.

In his absence, I beat the bushes down looking for him. Every morning with dread in my heart, I would go to the edge of the driveway and scan the highway to see if he fell victim to a car. I searched, I put up posters, called the vets and other cat people in the area and finally decided that he had gone to the Bridge and I needed to move on. Thankfully, this was not the case. He is home and I will continue to take my cues from him and perhaps in the future, I will be able to send you a photo of him on my lap. That’s the plan folks, but I am working on his time clock and it could take weeks, months, even years or not happen at all. My friend Haley told me the other day, I should change his name to His Royal Miracle! LOL  I like his Royal Blackness so much better.

There is so much going on right now beyond my front door. So much hate and discontent and killings. What started as a protest has now turned into a revolution in some parts of our nation.There are people acting feral, they are acting rabid. All of it is very confusing and scary. The virus is still here. It is not a hoax. But in this home, when if comes to HRB? Black Lives do matter. 🙂 ALL Life matters whether it has two feet or four. Especially this black life!:)

On the pet food front, it is pretty dismal. I wish that they would just call me before I leave and tell me if the food is there or not. I have been there faithfully or had someone to stand in for me, every Friday without fail. If I drive to Albany which is 45 minutes from here, when I get home, I am crippled up for 3 days. It is disheartening to show up and be told, “There is nothing here for you!” They don’t even say they are sorry. I just drive away empty. I am now buying cat food and paying the vet bill out of my household expenses. My cats will eat before I do. I am becoming very fond of PBJ’s and am so grateful that a Good Samaritan has gifted me with nine months of food for me. I can see God’s plan in all of this- so it balances out. Call it Faith (which I do) call it Kismet, call it whatever you want, but we are still afloat. All cats are healthy and happy and life moves on.

Yesterday, I decided to tackle Mike’s lumber pile. It has been sitting unused now over 15 years, covered in tarps. It was quite the mess. But I started removing the years of lawn debris that covered the tarps (8 in total!) When I got to the very last tarp and finally pulled it off- I saw this mass of shredded plastic shopping bags. They were constructed along with twigs and leaves into a large nest! There was a mama possum and five babies! I screamed because they startled me, mama raised her head, showed me her pearly whites and vanished underneath the pile with her babies. Guess she though playing possum wouldn’t work for this situation! LOL  She had dug a huge hole in the ground at the front of the lumber stack and lined it with her finds. She must have gone into the shop to get the plastic bags, she shredded each bag into long strips for insulation and had quite the cozy nest!

What I ended up doing- as all the lumber was not salvageable. I just restacked it. Over the nest, I placed just the top of a large plastic dog crate (to give her added protection should she return) Then I just covered it with one tarp and let it be. If she wants that as her home, I have no problem with her plans. I did also leave her a large amount of dry kitty food as an apology for interrupting her family time.