Early morning visitor

We have frequent cat guests in our back yard. I call our patio the cat cafe because I keep a bowl of water in the shade for passing felines. Two of our neighbors have cats that drift over now and then. I've become friends with B.B. from up the street, a coal black fellow with golden eyes. Once I had to get a ladder and get him off the roof because however he found his way up, there didn't seem to be a ready avenue for him to get down.

My cat, Miss Daisy, feuds with my next door neighbor's cat, who we call Gray Kitty. She's a younger, trimmer female so it seems reasonable Miss Daisy who's a tad on the fluffy side doesn't really like her around.

Sad Orange Kitty
Of late we've been seeing a little orange cat. He's thinner than the time he first passed through the yard, so I've decided he must be abandoned. I fed him all the cat food my co-worker gave me after her cats made it clear they would starve rather than eat it.

Then I started him on a diet of my cats' food. They've been turning their noses up on it since a stay at the vet introduced them to finer cuisine.

Sad Orange Kitty has decided he doesn't have to polish off everything I give him in one sitting now. He was devouring it in a starved gobble. I guess not knowing where your next meal is coming from prompts that, even if it's food other cats would rather starve than eat.

Different fur
This morning when I got up to brew the java of the gods, I noticed something furry on the patio, but it was darker fur than Sad Orange Kitty's. My first thought was that B.B. had made a long night of it.

Then I realized the hind legs I was looking at weren't quite catlike, especially as they began to extend a little.

A few seconds later a raccoon was staring into my kitchen. He decided to flee as soon as our eyes met, and I found it a little freaky. Christine, who was still dozing, said my exact words were: "Jesus Christ, Christine, there's a raccoon on the patio."

Previous guests
A raccoon shouldn't have come as much of a surprise, we have frequent rabbits, and periodically an opossum used to show up to sample some bird trail mix Christine put out, and there are crows who sail over as well.

I guess all of them had the run of the place before developers carved our neighborhood out of the forest.

Perhaps my early morning visitor feels I encroached on his back yard more than he has encroached on mine. I hold the deed, but he's a native on this land, and to him I'm sure Sad Orange Kitty's leftovers were very tasty.