[Prudence]

There are two orange kitties that hang around our complex. They appear to be a pair -- maybe siblings or parent/offspring. The slightly larger one is really skittish and I haven't officially "met" him yet. In fact, I've only seen him twice now. But the tiny orange kitty is super friendly. I think it's a she. She is so sweet and friendly.

And starving.

We've been feeding her off and on, but I wasn't really sure if she was a stray or not. And I haven't seen her in a few weeks. But I just saw her today and she's starving. If the cat, when viewed from above, looks like an I with jutting out pelvic bone and shoulder blades and then a teeny spine with visible ribs -- the cat is starving. She's too active to be skinny from illness. If someone DOES own her, they damn well aren't taking care of her.

So we are. I can't bring her inside since Sashapants goes ballistic if I even come close to her after petting orange kitty. Mild manner scaredy-pants turns into hissing, aggressive hellion. Not going to work. But I'm feeding and watering her outside.

Today, as soon as she saw me, she set up this howl so loud my husband could hear it in the garage. She was so skinny -- I took one look at her and RAN for the cat food. Oh it just makes me sick. She's too friendly to have been feral. She was someone's pet once. She keeps trying to come inside, so she's probably used to that. I've been seeing her off and on (but not in this state!) for over a year, and we've had lots of people in the complex take advantage of the housing market and sell their condos for significant profits. I'll bet she used to belong to someone and they left without her. We live amongst wetlands and have rodent problems, so it's possible she's been eating that way. I don't know.

But we'll feed her. And maybe other orange kitty will be encouraged to be more friendly. Even if I can't save both, I'll at least save the one. I'm trying to find a good home for her before winter. My mom's current cat (that, by the way, she adopted the same way -- clearly former indoor pet, clearly starving, fed and adopted and has never wanted to go outside since) is in much more advanced renal failure than my Boris and they have plenty of space for another cat. And she's as much of a softy for cats as I am, so maybe it will work.

In the meantime, I'll feed her outside.