New addition to the Yard Patrol

If this little newcomer curled up in our back yard, she'd disappear - her colors are the perfect camouflage for our summer-dried grass and fallen oak leaves.

She's got a few tabby stripes, including most of the forehead "M," but the rest of her is a blend of white and a dilute tortoiseshell blend. She's got long, soft hair that picks up any plant matter that's no longer rooted into the ground.

Her coloring vaguely reminded me of a Maine Coon Cat or Norwegian Forest Cat. Going with the Nordic inspiration, I nicknamed her "Freya." She likes the monicker, and responded to it immediately.

She showed up with an unfortunate collection of ticks and a hankering for dinner.

I didn't need another cat...we have The Monkey and India the Dog-Cat inside, and our former barn cats, Texie and Sadie, living in Kenny's Iron Garden in the back. Plus, the Moocher Brothers from next door, Snippet and Flash, who must get served meals first so my own outdoor cats can eat without harrassment. These all get fed in the morning, so not to tempt the evening prowlers - the raccoons, skunks and opossums that mostly coexist with humans in our neighborhood.

These cats have a job - keep the yard free of gophers. We've used a variety of non-explosive, mostly non-toxic methods to rid our yard of gophers, and our neighbors have experimented with even more creative methods. Nothing worked - except the cats.

We haven't seen a gopher or its hole in a while, so we weren't in the market for another cat. But nobody told this lonely little fuzzball, who wandered up and mewed plaintively for a bite to eat.

I didn't need a cat, I said. I wasn't going to get it a collar, I said. I pinched off the ticks and dripped flea and tick repellent into the fur - that much I could do. And pop open another can of food....after all, if I didn't, then my own cats would be deprived of food. I wasn't going to give this cat a name, I said. I called it "Munchkin," a generic name I use for anything that wanders through our yard, including my own Yard Patrol staff. I wasn't going to get attached, I said.

Surely, this cat belonged to someone....

But if she did, she apparently belonged to no one now, I concluded after many weeks of feeding the newcomer. Surely no one would allow this lovely longhaired kitty to wander around, foodless, collarless, collecting ticks and debris in her fur.

I found a reflective collar I'd gotten on sale some months ago, and put it on her. No one's taken offense at this and removed it. Nobody's posted any "lost cat" flyers with her image.

She's now a regular for the morning Yard Patrol Breakfast Gathering. She cruises around the house. She longs to come inside, so I suspect at one time she might have been an indoor cat. But she fusses at The Monkey when he peers out at her, and I wouldn't dare upset the Dog by adding another cat indoors.

So, she's stuck outside with the rest of the Yard Patrol. She seems to be accepted by Texie and mostly is ignored by Sadie. She's still working out a relationship with the Moocher Brothers. Unlike the rest, who are all short-haired, she gets combed out every morning. Unlike India, who resists such attention, Freya seems to like being groomed.

I didn't need another cat in the yard. But it's a decent-sized back yard, and apparently this little girl needed a place to stay.