Family Finds Instructions from Old Homeowners, Look Outside and See Cat Peeking In
When you move into a new house or apartment, do you ever wonder what the previous owners or tenants were like? How many were there, what did they do for a living, and whether or not they had any pets?
Unless you’ve met them personally, it’s difficult to know what they were like other than what you can glean from the shape they left the place in and what color paint they chose.
But one family got a handwritten note when they moved in, and it detailed a rather peculiar bonus that came with the property.
“Welcome to our beloved home!” the note started out.
“We hope you enjoy it as much as we have! There’s one favor we ask of you, you do not have to do it, but we would appreciate it if you did.”
“In the backyard there is an old orange kitty who lives there. He is feral and was born in our backyard 12 years ago. He has an injured paw and will not let you go near him. We feed him (every day) twice a day and we have for years now.”
“We usually feed him some dry or wet cat food with some water, on the porch in the backyard. We bought him a little house for the winter and rainy days, that is placed against the wall in the backyard.”
“We would really appreciate it if you would continue to feed him. We just hate leaving him behind. God bless and welcome to your new home!”
A feral cat is very different from leaving a tame pet behind. There are people who move and leave their domesticated housepets behind, and that’s just cruel and irresponsible.
But outdoor cats, and especially wild outdoor cats, don’t always travel well. They get used to a place, and that becomes their territory. If they’re taken away from it, they will do everything within their power to get “home,” which often leads to a missing animal shortly after a move.
Fortunately Miranda and her family were already cat lovers, and the request was acknowledged as soon as they arrived. Miranda said that the old cat quickly made his appearance.
“We immediately looked out the back sliding glass door and he was looking at us through the door,” she said during an interview with The Dodo.
“We started laughing because we currently have five cats, all but one have been rescued. The house we lived in previously, people used to drop off their cats there and we took them in.”
The cat was dubbed Raz, and though he was skittish at first, he soon learned to trust the new humans living in the place he’d come to call home for over a decade.
“He used to hide anytime we came to the door,” Miranda said. “Now we can sit outside with him. He will come up and eat now when the screen door is open, which he wouldn’t do before.”
“He also now comes to the door and meows to let us know that he needs food.”
For them, the decision to take on a new family member was easy, but Miranda believes that the reward of caring for an animal more than pays for itself.
“If you have the means to take care of an animal in need, you should,” she said. “There is nothing like earning the their trust and helping them live out their time comfortably and feeling loved.”
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