When I went out into the driveway to take the dogs out Monday morning, I heard a sound somewhere between a cat and a bird coming from under our car. I called Leah, and this is what she found.

It’s a small, female tortoise-shell cat. Here she is, reaching out to the photographer.

She was enthusiastically friendly and reasonably accepting of being picked up and held. She was vocal, and couldn’t get enough affection. Leah eventually brought her in. At first she was ill at ease, but within short time she seemed to make herself at home.

The dogs were very interested, in fact, a little too interested. Sam has a strong prey drive, so we weren’t comfortable with how intently he stared at her. Zeke whined and wanted to check her out. Sam wanted to sniff her all over. But even with two dogs towering over her, she didn’t seem afraid.

We had no intention of keeping the cat, despite how friendly she seemed compared to our other cats. Leah called a neighbor who we knew had cats, and they were interested in seeing her since they had only recently had to put their cat down.

We kept the cat inside for a while, and then let her out into the garage. When the neighbors drove up, she was nowhere to be found. We called, but no cat.

We talked with the neighbors for a while, but eventually they had to leave without the cat. As soon as they left, the cat walked out from wherever she had been hiding in the garage.

And that was OK with Leah. Leah had been saying for a while that maybe she would keep the cat, and both she and the neighbors took it as a sign.

We kept her inside for a while but put her back out into the garage when we left to get something to eat. We weren’t sure whether she was house trained, so we thought she would better in the garage.

She was gone when we got back home. Leah was devastated. She called and called, but there was no sign of the cat. We suspected (fairly strongly) that the bad boys, Sylvester and Smokey, had chased her away. We also considered the possibility that some time earlier she had found a place to sleep and had gone back there for the night.

Of course Leah didn’t give up. It was after 9 when she went out for the last time and called. She had given up and come back towards the garage when the little cat came running up the driveway.

She really doesn’t like Smokey or Sylvester, based on how much hissing goes on when they’re around, but she doesn’t mind the dogs. It appears that she hasn’t met Chloe or Dusty yet. We have no idea how they will interact.

Here she is on the back of the sofa, checking Sam out.

Here she is making herself at home.

There is always the chance that this little cat will disappear if she goes out, but otherwise it looks like we may have our fifth cat (seventh if you count the two we have lost, Zoe and Rusty, since moving up here). She has found our bed and seems to like lying on it. Leah has been wishing for a cat that would sleep on our bed with us. Maybe she’s the one.