In the spring of 2011, I spotted an unfamiliar cat in my
backyard late one evening. The sun was setting, and I could not tell in the
fading light just what color the cat was. I saw the cat a few evenings and
nights after that. It always ran away as soon as I would step outside. I would
call to it, and tried to approach it when I would see it in the yard at night
while coming home from class, but it always ran away. A week had passed and I
still had no idea if the cat was male or female. The cat was hanging around because
my parents and I had been taking our table scraps from dinner outside and putting
them where it could find them.
Then one morning, I spotted the cat in the driveway. One
look at it in the morning sunlight told me it was female. The tortoiseshell
coloring proved it. She watched me as I walked toward my car. Still, she ran
away before I could get remotely close to her. I noticed she had an odd gait as
she ran. When she stopped momentarily to look back, I realized why. Her
right-front forepaw was obviously broken and had not properly healed, causing
the leg to be bent at an odd angle. Instantly, I felt even more sympathy for
the frightened cat.
I became determined to find a way to make the cat understand she could trust me.
