The Cat in the Box - Part I

 

The Cat in the Box

 

Robert L. Withers, 2026

 

The Beginning

 

               The wind blew the box off the deck and onto the patio. Was the cat inside? Is she okay?

               When we lost our Border Collie Lily after 15 ½ years we didn’t think we’d get another dog, the pain was just too much and we were getting older, truly older. There was, however, Princess, our neighbor’s cat. When Lily was still with us Princess, a tabby, would visit on our back deck from time to time, she and Lily ignored each other. After Lily was gone we saw more of Princess.

               We decided to bestow a new name on Princess. When Princess was on Pete and Lisa’s property, she would be Princess, when she crossed onto our property we would call her Duchess. We took a photo of Duchess and sent it to Pete and Lisa, telling them that we had a new cat named Duchess.

Pete said to Lisa, “It looks like Princess.”

Lisa replied, “It is Princess.”

You can’t fool a momma!

As winter approached we were concerned about Duchess having a warm place to sleep. Princess is an outdoor cat and not keen on coming inside, whether in the cold (she is from New York) or even during storms. Since Pete and Lisa have two rambunctious young dogs, Princess doesn’t find peace and quiet in their home even when she wants to be inside.

We decided to purchase Duchess a heated kitty condo (we do not call it a cathouse).

Duchess immediately took to her new digs. She would come over in the evening to spend the night and sleep as long as she wanted in the morning.

About the time Duchess took possession of her new condo, we began feeding her. Not long after our food service was established a rather small calico began to appear. She wasn’t as small as a kitten, but she was much smaller than Princess. Naturally we expanded our food service to accommodate the calico.

What to call her?

We wanted something that was in line with Princess and Duchess and settled on Lady Jane.

As cold weather set in, we worried about Lady Jane. Since we didn’t know if Lady Jane would move on from us, we took a sturdy cardboard box, lined it with a soft blanket, placed it in proximity to Duchess’s condo, and waited to see what would happen.

Lady Jane moved in on the first day.

During wet weather I covered the outside of the box with tarps.

In spite of our hospitality, Lady Jane did not want us near her and certainly didn’t want us touching her. She trusted our food, she trusted our box, but she did not trust us.

Then one day we had a storm with strong winds and before we knew it, despite our efforts to secure her box, Lady Jane’s box blew off the deck and five steps down onto the patio. What a ride that must have been!

I went outside, looked down the stairs, and Lady Jane was outside her box with a puzzled look, as if to ask, “What am I doing down here?”

Well, this would not do, especially as it was getting progressively colder and the box was not heated. We purchased another heated kitty cottage!

Would she make the switch?

She inspected the outside of the cottage, smelled all around it, but she would not venture inside.

Our kitty condos have transparent plastic flaps at their entrances. This was not a problem for Duchess, but it was for Lady Jane; she was not going to push her way through the flap to get inside.  (In case you’re wondering, they also have back doors that only push outward just in case kitty needs to make an emergency exit.)

Once we saw the problem, we employed the handy man’s secret weapon and used duct tape to keep the flap open. The result was immediate occupancy by the calico.

Within a few weeks Lady Jane had gone from living in bushes and woods in the neighborhood, to inside a cardboard box, to enjoying the heat and protection of a kitty cottage. She had progressed from having to hunt for her food, and scrounge scraps from patios and decks, to having two personal chefs cater to her. She now had a sister of sorts, Princess, who also invited her to meals at Pete and Lisa’s. While the two cats had their occasional spats, they were comfortable around each other and looked for each another.

An element of Lady Jane’s behavior was constantly looking around when eating. I suppose she learned that she needed to beware of cats and other animals who were after her food. There was less and less of this behavior when Duchess was around.