On a hunch I drove by the park today again.

There she was!!!! That gorgeous cat! She came right to me even though she was a bit skittish.

I fed her some lunchmeat.

I asked the neighbors about her and they said she was a stray. So...I took her home. She seemed to be okay with the house but didn't like Tommy. Well Tommy tried to be friends. She stayed in my room a while. She ate. I talked to her and pet her. I let her go where she wanted. She wanted to sit in the windowsills.

Finally I decided we'd do a tour of the yard. I picked her up, took her to the front porch, and as soon as possible she escaped from me with baby Tommy pursuing. Yikes! She ran over to a neighbor's where she is presently holed up somewhere. We tried and tried to cajole her out of wherever she was. I haven't seen her. Big mistake to take her outside so soon. Should have kept her in much longer.

I have had a lot of kitties who start out growling at each other upon meeting, only to be friends or a least tolerate one another later. I was sure it would happen with Tommy and, well, I was calling her Bella Donna...

Nathanael has been learning how to track animals so I think he's looking for her in the woods near our house. Now the neighbors whose house she ran past don't think she went to the woods at least via their yard because their little dog Miles would have barked incessantly. We looked in their bushes and their tall, tall trees, but no Bella... We have a lush woods in the neighborhood and I'm sure she will be OK if she stays there and we don't find her, but I still want her...I felt a real connection with that cat. But if she is just truly too feral, and she can't be happy here, well, she will have a nice life with lots of fat birds and mice out there. I just hate that she had to change where she lives, in that casae, though I don't think that park was too safe due to the extremely busy road nearby.

I will give it a few days and see if I or anyone can spot her. I wanted to photo her to show the world how incredibly striking her face is. She really is more tortie than callie but she certainly looks to be a little of each, I guess. Mostly tortie.

Will be sitting tomorrow at the house of kidlets (aka Dave's).