little kitty lost..

There is a young adult cat hanging around our neighborhood. He first appeared in our back yard, at around 2AM about two nights ago, yowling like mad. We went outside to investigate, and was greeted quickly by a very friendly kitty. He's probably not even one year old.

We contemplated putting him in our cats' cage (which they stayed in while they were little kittens until we knew they were completely litter trained) for the night in our garage.. We quickly changed our minds when he would not stop meowing, and we could hear it through the house in our bedroom.

So, we let him loose, hoping he'd be ok for the night.

The next morning, our neighbors rang our bell, cat in arms. They were going door to door trying to find his owner, as he had found his way into their garage during the night. They already have a cat, as do we, so neither of us could house him. I found that they put up posters on the mailboxes with his picture in hopes someone would claim him.

So far, no one has, that we are aware of. He showed up at our house again last night, again in the back yard. Our bedroom light was on, so that is where he concentrated his efforts to get our attention. When he climbed onto our window screen, I went out side to get him to the front yard.

I stood in the driveway for a few minutes, contemplating what to do. We live at the edge of our housing development, and to the west of us is nothing but desert. We regularly hear coyotes at night.

I figured he managed to make it through the last few nights ok, but I wanted to help a little, so I closed the garage with about five inches of space at the bottom, so he could come and go as he pleased. The cage was still there from the other night, so I separated it from its base, so he could get to the blankets & litter box that we had put in there the other night.

Today, when Josh was heading out the door to leave for work, lost kitty sprinted inside. I quickly picked him up before our cats discovered he was in the house, and stepped out into the garage. I held him while Josh backed out so he wouldn't get squished, and then closed the garage to leave the 5" space again, set the kitty down and went back inside. He meowed pitifully for a few more minutes, then went on his way.

I don't know how long we should wait before we should take him to a shelter, in case his owners see one of the signs our neighbors put up and come to claim him... I want to try to take him to a no-kill shelter if I can, but the first one I called has a two to three week waiting list for found animals to be accepted to await adoption. I can only imagine what kind of waiting lists others in the Valley have.

If you live in Phoenix and you want to give this guy a home, contact me. I'd take him in if we didn't already have two cats (who were extremely unhappy at this fellow's presence in the backyard). He seems healthy, and he is not de-clawed. I think he may be neutered but I'm not positive. Since we've not let him into the house (at least not intentionally), we don't know of any bad habits he may have, other than his tendency to climb your leg if you don't pay enough attention to him (fortunately I was wearing jeans).

I think I may wait a week and if he's still hanging around, I'll turn him over to a shelter. He's really very sweet but I don't think I'm prepared to try introducing a new cat into the family.

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