Someone came along to brighten my week.

On Wednesday, we started to hear a kitten hollering under the sheds behind my office. Feral cats aren’t unusual out there; there’s a crazy cat lady who feeds them, which just makes the problem worse. In fact, one of the only things I took and kept while doing the building inspections this week was a clean cat skull (hey, nobody else would have wanted or found it)(oh and I’m not running around and stealing things. I also picked up a hat which had blown onto a roof.)

But I digress.

Ralph and I do love the office creatures, so we each spent an awfully lot of time on our hands and knees, peering under a three-inch gap. He shared his lunch with it, but it turned its nose up at spaghetti, so I brought it some cat food from home. It cleaned the bowl, but I forgot to bring another bowlful this morning.

So when it finally cooled off this evening, I took some crunchies out to bribe the hungry critter with.

After sitting quietly for about an hour, feeding it one kibble at a time, I finally got my hands on it (him.) Once he decided that I was allowed to pet him, everything was OK, so I scooped him up and drove home.

On retrospect, going to catch a feral kitten in shorts and without a box may not have been too bright, but we got home and he’s safely ensconced in the bathroom until he settles down a little bit. I have to fish him out from behind the toilet, but once there, he rubs and purrs and acts like a normal kitten.

I don’t guess he’s more than six weeks at the most, and first thing tomorrow, I’m making an appointment at the vet. He has fleas and looks wormy and stinks to high heaven and is undoubtedly going to yammer all night and be a complete pain in the ass.

I think I’ll call him Mouse.