The One With The Purring Siren

We checked. Siren's a female.

I was pretty worried about this backyard stray since it was raining very heavily last night, and thus it was to my relief when the thin wails of meowing were still audible when I woke up in the morning. We tried giving her warm milk for breakfast, but she didn't seem to like the taste of milk that much. She actually seemed rather worn out, probably due to all the screaming she had done during the night. Before going out for lunch, I checked her out again, only to find her stuffing herself headfirst(!) into the drainage pipe, conking out of lethargy.

Coming back after dinner, we found her curling up forlornly behind the slipper, too tired to even make a tiny sound. We portioned out a bit of the Whiskas cat food we bought for her, and tried to feed her some red snapper. Siren is no longer afraid of us, so it didn't take much coaxing to get her eating. Much to our delight, she devoured the (what seemed gross to me) cat food happily and hungrily, and for the first time, I heard a close-range kitten purring. Her appetite seemed to improve alot as she was also willing to lap up some warm milk this time. (I'm kinda forcing milk on her because she looks so dehydrated!)

Siren seemed to have quite a small appetite for food and a large appetite for affection. After a few more chunks of snapper, she boldly came closer to my feet. Initially I thought she was attracted to the cat food slime on my fingers, but it didn't take long to see that she wants some petting. You see, that is the problem. The reason I never keep pets is that I am dermatologically sensitive to animal fur and the like. Dust, mites, fur, etc are my potential allergens, so if Siren touches me, I'll end up visiting the hospital. But this kitten is seeking some form of petting, so as she kept coming after me, I kept backing away from her.

Since the kitten didn't look like she's giving up, I put on an old sock, and using it as a glove, gave Siren all the stroking she wants. This stray is as bony as she looks. Frankly, I didn't know how to pet a cat and do not comprehend cat-body-expression. She wagged her tail upon stroking, and as far as I understand, tail wagging with cats meant they are agitated. But after some petting and playing around, Siren seemed to be comfortable around me enough to start showing me her claws and fangs. In fact, she became sufficiently daring to venture out the tar road at the backyard, skittering back and forth, refusing to return to the sheltered door step even when I hauled her back to her slipper-spot.

After Siren started biting me through the old sock, I decided that it was enough of pampering, and left her to fend for herself. It was my mistake to think that she would still be blur and vulnerable: this smart puss immediately ran back to the comfort of her drain-pipe spot once I left her alone on the road in the backyard.

All the feeding and petting might be worth it; Siren's sleeping and tonight we too can sleep peacefully minus the night-long caterwauling.

～みはる～