Meet Albert...

 as in 'Young Einstein'.  

Otherwise known as 'Lil' Phoenix.

One of the downfalls of such a mild year round climate are the amount of wild or semi wild cats  around.  You see them in parking lots, parks, Sahauro Ranch, my complex.  Pretty much everywhere. 

Here at Olive Green Villas there are dozens of pusses of various descriptions, roaming about.  The people at PAWS tell me the breeding season is so long and very few people bother to spay or neuter their cats.  So, the result is a population explosion amongst felines.

Albert was one such kitty.  We saw him around the hood, tiny... oft times with a similarly sized  piano key colored partner.  Anna tracked him relentlessly for the better part of three days...

As I had mentioned previously she can be utterly focused on the task at hand that interests her.  By contrast, if she loses or has no interest, sayanara baby.

Not so with Albert though.  Feeding him tidbits from the fridge, enlisting Mom's aiding and abetting, they arrived "home" one day with this itty bitty scraggly, sopping wet little pussycat. Brenda's explanation, which may have been somewhat rehearsed was thus: 

"Some young boy thought he was his cat so took him in.  Finding that his fur was oily, no doubt the result of rubbing up against some leaking oil pan, he shampooed and cleaned him up.  Lo and behold, his kitten had been curled up in a closet, so therefore newly laundered Albert had to go."   

Another young girl provided a knit blanket to cuddle him with, and when the gangsters (and I do mean that with all sincerity) Brenda and Anna, in collusion with one another, showed up on my patio with this dripping wet, little boyishly handsome dumpling, with the explanation.

"Well we certainly couldn't just let him go, he was shivering severely as if he'd just arrived from the Arctic..."  wink wink with those big brown sad eyes.  Not Albert, but Brenda! 

Okay I do love kitties and how am I supposed to resist two large chocolate colored orbs looking at me plaintifly?!  (Not Albert, Brenda!!!)

I made a little house out of my many cardboard boxes, I believe this one from my RCA sound system, as luck would have it, the perfect size.  After a bit of work with the utility knife and blanket installed and a little coaxing, he settled right in.

I made a point of explaining to daughter Anna, loudly enough so that Mom could hear too, that he had to stay outside, that I couldn't take him home to Canada with me.

That lasted about 3 days, until the temperature dropped substantially and it pelted, nay... came down as if from a firehose, at which point I moved the little guy into the utility room at about 3 am one morning.

Upon my return to the boudoir, Brenda, sitting up, merely smiled that knowing female smile that girls (I am sure) used to be taught from grades 3 until 8!  No words needed to be spoken... she just smiled, maybe grinned is a better word.From there, it was only a matter of time before Albert managed to "streak past Anna" into my dining/living room and beyond, to the utter shreiking delight of little miss sneaky pants girl.  Within days, he was curled up on my bed!

Reminds me of another unwanted little half starved, fur and bones little left behind male that I ultimately kept company with for 19 years...

He was my "Cat Boy" ... maybe there is another one to fill those paws.