More than once in the past week I’ve said to myself, Mario would totally laugh if he would see FOUR cats in the house. I remember when we adopted Hathor and Juno (we gave them those names, their shelter names were not fitting at all) and Mario said something along the lines of, our limit is two cats.

Mario liked cats, don’t get me wrong, but he didn’t understand cats like I do. He was much more team dog in that department, although he didn’t want to own a dog either. Dogs required too much attention.

So for the first couple years after Mario’s departure, it was just me and the two cats. Last summer, I fell for a Siamese cat at the local animal shelter while I was in the middle of building their new website.

So I adopted Kala and said to myself, okay, 3 cats is definitely my limit. It took awhile for everyone to get along, and by get along, I mean there may only be a random hiss or drive by swat that occurs now and then.

Cats have an elaborate and complicated social system and “politics”.

In fact, I’m currently writing this while a delicate balance of power plays out on the bed.

I did mention FOUR cats at the beginning of this post. Almost a year ago, we were having a big storm and out of the blue, a little tortoiseshell colored cat ended up on my deck taking shelter from the rain. It’s a sad fact, but there are people who abandon cats (and other domesticated animals), so one never knows if that’s the case at first or if it’s lost or maybe a neighbor just has a new outdoor kitty.

So the next day she was back on the deck and I set out a food bowl. She tore into that like she hadn’t eaten in days. This led me to believe she might have been lost, a stray, or abandoned. By the time Christmas rolled around, I had been sharing her photo to the whole neighborhood and local lost and found sources with no response. While I had a pet heating pad and a pet bed out on the deck, I couldn’t bear to have her outside when the temps were dipping into freezing. I bought her in and set her up in the room Mario and I called the music room.

Naturally, the other cats were like, WHO is that? After a few days and no big fights, I gave her some supervised time, free range in the house. Hathor is my “problem child”. She’s the most jealous cat I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing and she comes in hot with big, “don’t be part of the problem, be the whole problem” energy. I love that grumpy muffin though and believe me, she gets oddLes of attention, but not ALL of the attention (I try to give everyone a generous amount).

Things were going well though, and at one point on Christmas day, I even had everyone playing together with a wand toy.

Still, something in the back of my mind kept thinking she was someone’s cat.

I decided to get a pet chip scanner online since they’re relatively cheap. Sure enough, she had a chip. I gave the local animal shelter the number and they looked up the owner. They said the kitty’s shelter name was Freya (that fits!) and that the owner was basically a neighbor to me, living just across my field. Very odd that this neighbor someone didn’t see any of my “lost kitty” posts though, so that did not sit right with me. The shelter said they would contact the owner to have her pick Freya up. It was bitter sweet news, but like I said, I had a feeling and I was glad the owner could be located.

To say the pick up was awkward would be an understatement. It was like a parent picking up a kid at a sleep over and that kid decidedly did not want to go home. We made small talk and the woman apologized and told me that they had set their pet door to only go out so feral cats would not get in their house, which caused Freya to start roaming if there was no one to let her back in (which I honestly thought was rather sad). It took a little bit of time to get Freya in her carrier and off she went.

Things settled back down into a normal routine for a couple weeks. Then I was outside one day and I see Freya in my fenced garden. I called to her and she came running. And so over the course of the next month she’d visit a lot. Knowing she was often “locked out” of her house, I’d set a bowl of kibble out for her on my deck as well as a water bowl. The pet bed and heating pad were still there too. But knowing she had a “home”, I didn’t let her inside.

Occasionally I’d get a text from the owner who would ask if I’d seen her to which I’d always respond honestly and say she is often hanging out on my deck. She’d never ask to come pick her up and would make offhand comments about how she might have “abandoned them” because they rarely saw her.

This basically went on for the whole year. I found out she’s an epic hunter. She brought me a live (and very terrified) field mouse not long ago (I managed to relocate it without her seeing me). There have also been 2 birds I sadly had to have impromptu funerals for and my one neighbor has said she’s seen her with voles and gophers in her mouth, trotting triumphantly down the walking path behind her house.

I had already been feeling uneasy about Freya being an outdoor kitty (there are larger predators in our area, not to mention the main road off our little street), but when the weather started to get cold and rainy, I really didn’t want her outside at night. I set her up in my garage at first. She was very happy to come right in the French doors and walk right through the house with me to the garage. I’d sent the owner a text saying I hope she didn’t mind but Freya has been willingly going in my garage at night since it’s cold out. She responds with a “thank you for looking after her and that she appreciates it”, but again with the “she’s totally abandoned us” bit and no offer to pick her up.

They do have lots of other cats and dogs btw, so she wasn’t the only pet, but how the whole year played out, it was very clear that Freya made a choice.

She seems rather content to be a house cat and even fine with navigating around Hathor (and Kala who is none too pleased either). Hopefully the “house of hiss” will quiet down in the coming weeks and everyone with reestablish a balance.