I know she is under there. I see the tip of her tail as she vanishes into the darkness. In the mornings, when I put out food and step away, moments later, the two little white paws appear and the food disappears.

I lay the trap out and sprinkle kitty litter around the base before putting the food inside. When checking the trap, I see her pawprints in the sand, circling the trap in wide angles, calculating how to get to the food inside without venturing inside the trap. Sometimes, the bowl is turned upside down, evidence that she has tapped the dish in a quest for the food.

Quite puzzling really, her reluctance to approach me, because when she lived inside (she got out quite by accident three weeks ago) she was the type of kitty that couldn’t get enough pets and rubs. But, she is also my pariah kitty and picked on by all the cats including the new kittens. I’ve never seen anything quite like it- something about her body language, her smell? Her behavior, sets them off and they pommel her around the room. When she made her entrance into a room, she would do so cautiously. Ducking first behind the heater, then finding refuge behind the drapes, always looking around for where the resident cats were so she wouldn’t get challenged. Her objective; always my lap.

So, against my better judgement and because I have no other choice- I let Mercedes be the invisible kitty living under the house.