The Visitor

For a couple of nights we’ve heard what sounded like the cries of a kitten. We’d always go outside in search of the source but were never successful. Then this morning, while seated in a location that shall remain nameless, I saw through the bathroom window the likely responsible party: an orange kitten of maybe 4-6 months in age who was walking through the yard. By the time Deborah opened a can of cat food that happened to be in the house, the skittish feline had disappeared back into the jungle. But Deborah went ahead and put a dish of food out near the location of the sighting and sure enough a couple minutes later the cat came back and cleaned the plate.

It looked healthy enough so maybe it belongs to one of the neighbors, but the mournful sound of its cries the previous evenings and the eagerness with which it ate the offered meal make us wonder if it is a stray. We’ve asked a couple of the neighbors who make no claim on the cat, but there are still other neighbors to question, and we need to know why Tobi had that can of cat food in the house in the first place.

I think Deborah is hoping it is a stray so that she has a new “nurturing project” to occupy her time. She is already planning the construction of a cat bed using a cardboard box we have, and is developing a strategy of food dispersal to lure the kitten closer and closer to the house. All this is understandable given how we miss our own cat back home, even though we know it is in the tender care of my parents.

Exotic wildlife of Fiji