It Wasn't Supposed to Be Like This

I had sworn a hard line, was bound and determined to stick to the directives issued by my landlord in his household manual not to feed the cats under any circumstances!

I don't know what changed, whether the old softy in me poked through, whether Betti's compassionate comments about their sad state finally got to me, whether it's out of some subliminal sense of homage to Merit, who desperately wanted to feed them.

At any rate, the skinniest of the three showed up this evening, after I had already fed Pip and Huck. I hadn't seen Elf (I'm pretty sure I've got their names straight...Merit bestowed one on each of them and I know for sure that Pip is the pregnant one, I'm assuming Huck is the middle-weight and that Elf is the scrawny, pathetic starving one). I've made it a policy to only put the food down once....them that gets it gets it...but when I saw the hip bones jutting out on this one tonight, I made an exception. Immediately after putting the food down, the other two showed up, but I was effective at chasing them off to the sidelines while Elf got her share. She ate almost all of it, then turned and looked at Huck as if to say, "OK, I'm done...you can have the rest" and went and sat up on the wall.

Pip has an appointment with the vet in Souda Bay on Thursday. They took her on short notice due to the fact that she's pregnant. Since I have no idea where I'm going, I'll make a dry run tomorrow to establish the route, so I'm not driving all over the place with a freaked out feral cat on Thursday.

Next Tuesday it's Huck's turn. I'll see if Elf keeps coming around, and work her in eventually.