A little over a year ago, someone dumped a calico cat on our property. After about a week of trying to get her to come to me, I finally set my traps and caught her. I put her in the barn in a carrier and she went ballistic being confined. She threw herself repeatedly against the door of the carrier and screamed as if the hounds of hell were inside with her. I covered her with a dark cloth and made plans to take her in the following morning to the vet.

The next morning, I went out to fetch her only to find that sometime in the night, she had escaped. I was surprised, because she was in such bad shape, skinny, no teeth, old and her legs were like toothpicks. How she managed to weaken the door, I will never know.

I tried several dozen times to re-trap her, but she would see me coming and just take off. I tried to win her over, but she would have none of it. I just kept feeding the outside cats and occassionally would catch a glimpse of her scooting under the house. I marveled that she was still alive, even though she was eating, there was little weight gain.

Tonight, I went into the enclosure off our porch. There is access 24/7 to the outside in this enclosure and to my surprise, there she was with the other cats waiting for dinner! I didn’t dare look at her so I just went about feeding and watering the group. I did manage to pet her once as she bent over to eat. Her hair feels very unhealthy- coarse and oily. But even after I touched her, she still stayed with the group eating. I suspect our unusually cold weather is driving her inside. I hope that in ignoring her, she will start to feel safe in this enclosure and on Monday if she shows up, I will block off the exits and get her into a carrier and get her quickly to the vet.

Perhaps this unextpected Christmas gift will become an early Christmas miracle.