And just like that, we have a cat.

Last night, as I was worrying about my paperwork, I heard W- yell, “Sacha, would you like to pet a cat?” Cat-petting beats paperwork-worrying any day, and besides, I was mostly done.

There was a charcoal gray cat on our porch. It–she–had apparently followed W- and J- home, and was purring like a sports car engine while J- stroked her. She was too friendly to have been a feral cat, and her coat was too well-kept for her to have been out on her own for long. She had no collar, though.

She was a little skittish, noticeably tenser whenever she heard cars zoom past or whenever the screen door latched loudly. But she was friendly, and we eventually tempted her in with saucers of milk and mashed-up salmon.

After she licked the saucers clean, she stood by the door and we let her out. She sat on the porch steps, watching the cars go by. She also explored the flowerboxes. After a while, J- reported that she couldn’t see the cat. I put on my shoes and stepped outside to check if the cat had moved on, looking for her home. A shadow moved near the tree in front of our house, and then ran–ran!–up the stairs and back into the house. J- and I smiled when we saw how she was getting used to us.

Cold night, or food and warmth and attention? Must’ve been an easy choice.

As we watched her explore, we munched on the salmon-mayo sandwiches W- made from the rest of the can. She explored the entire house, rubbing her face against everything in order to mark it hers.

Definitely friendly and completely unafraid of humans. Looks like we have a cat.

The totally awesome Sandy Kemsley read my Twitter gave me a cat bed, a litter box and a few liners, and some cat treats. The cat took to the bed immediately and spent the rest of the afternoon comfortably ensconced in it. W- picked up some cat litter and food; the food met the cat’s approval, but the litter still hasn’t been used. (I hope that she’s either used to litter boxes, or–lucky!–maybe she’s toilet-trained!)

We’ve put up “Cat Found” posters around the area, but I hope we can keep her. I am temporarily calling her le chat gris, like the way I called my first cat Neko because I was studying Japanese. Maybe we can teach each other how to speak French.