I fear the worst. It's been several days since I've seen Lydia and she's never been gone this long before.
Lydia was (or, I hope, still is) one of the many feral cats I've fed in my backyard over the years. It started with Jackie, a reddish cat who was found, seriously underfed, rummaging through my trash cans one day in 1991. I began putting out grub for her and she was a more-or-less constant presence in the yard until 2003.
During much of that time, she chased off any other cat or animal that encroached on what she'd decided was her turf but she apparently had other duties elsewhere. She couldn't be there 24/7 so other cats snuck in to partake of the buffet and near the end, Jackie got a bit more generous with the food I was paying for. By the time she crawled under my house and died, I was feeding other felines on the back porch. I've never been out of customers since then.
Lydia, as I eventually named her, showed up here around June of 2007. We called her The Kitten then and if I left the door to the garage open, she would usually sneak in there to look for food. That year, she somehow managed to be hiding in there when Carolyn and I left for the Comic-Con in San Diego, locking the door behind us. Ergo, we unknowingly locked The Kitten in there.
When we returned 4.5 days later, we found her — hungry but unharmed. I had left an uncapped bottle of drinking water on a counter in there and she somehow knocked it over and got to the water. She was a good sport about it. Once I'd fed her, she forgave me for what I'd done.
A little less than a year later, she somehow got pregnant…and maybe I shouldn't say "somehow" because there's only one way that happens. In an epic adventure which I recounted in this diary, I managed to trap her and take her in for a pussycat abortion. She also forgave me for that…and she's been coming around since then. For a time, I had four cats out there with occasional guest stars but lately, it's been down to two: Her and Sylvia.
So Lydia has been in my backyard for around well over ten years…and if she wasn't in my yard, like when my gardener was out there, she was in an adjoining neighbor's. Sylvia comes around almost every night but Lydia is there for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a midnight snack. Or at least she did. I haven't seen her since last Thursday and like I said, I fear the worse.
I didn't mean to dump this on you. I mean, I know how many other problems and concerns you have on your mind and it's possible Lydia's just vacationing in Barbados or something. Then again, the average life span of a feral cat is 3-5 years and Lydia's around 11. I'll let you know if she shows up but I have a not-good feeling about this…a real not-good feeling about this.