Applicant cat footnote

Applicant cat #4 was here all day, first thing in the morning, last thing tonight, and pretty much all points in between, but she's keeping her distance from us humans. She (or he; Brett thinks it's a boy) looks sad and has the most pathetic meow. She comes in sometimes and walks around the first floor meowing, but only if I'm on another floor. I've found her sitting on the front porch with Max and on the back deck with Phoenix. We've made some eye contact without her running off and she almost came over to me once this afternoon.

So when I got home from yoga tonight, I wasn't surprised when I looked out the backdoor and saw the fluffy tail of our new applicant cat disappearing down the back steps. She had clearly been peeking in the cat door and wondering about coming in when I came clomping along and scared her off.

So I opened the door and went out to try to sweet talk her into joining us inside for a while. She's getting more used to me and almost came up to me earlier today.

And as I was scrunched down making comforting sounds and trying to entice her over, I glanced over to my right and saw the world's BIGGEST freaking possum, planted firmly in the middle of the back lawn, just munching away on bugs or grass or something. He was somewhere between the size of our largest cat and the labrador who lives down the street.

We looked at each other for a very long moment.

He chewed loudly, in a very cowlike fashion, completely unmoved by my presence.

"Yo," he seemed to say. "Whazzup? Toss me some wheatgrass, would ya?"

It wasn't until I picked up the hose and made like I'd spray him that he heaved a big sigh and lumbered off through the hole in the back fence. Clearly he was thinking, lady, why are you bothering me? I'm not doing anything, I'm just chewin'.

So unfortunately, the cat door had to be closed a couple hours earlier than usual and our little applicant is locked out with the wild animals for the night. But such is life.