She gave us a scare last night, wasn't coming back in, either sleeping in a loft above the woodshed or hunting/roaming in the moonlight, that's when the owls come out and eat cats, or just kill them. Usually the cat is found whole but near dead. Neighbor just had it happen to his, $500 in Xrays. Then it happened to a stray that showed up at his house, so two in a row, but he's more in the woods than we are, out in the open.
I kept going to the door and calling, it finally showed up about 9:30p which is like midnite for me, temp out was 7º, barely phases a cat.
There is a momma around, a stray that showed up at a neighbors and "had a half dozen kittens", according to a neighbor lady up the hill, figures, completely batty single old lady and a bunch of cats, but she says there was never a black one in that bunch, so this kitten came from somewhere else.
The momma we have seen before, burly Tabby with some Calico shading, and that cat was out on that same straw bales - under a roof's edge and protected from the side with metal roofing, so like a hidden safe place - when I went out at 1am, some nights back, it was the coldest night - 19.5º, which obviously still barely phases a cat, nine lives and all.
And that one is now living at the house with the cat killer aussie shepperd collie mix dog, or at least they feed it.
Luckily for our cat, she had already started being good before the cold snap so she could come in through the night.
She goes a little catatonic when she sleeps.
