You never know what will happen when you take a walk.
This time we came home with a feral kitten that we found under highway 680.

Last night, James, Mary and I took a walk on S King Road, heading towards Story Road.  While passing under highway 680 we spotted this little ball of fur, curved up next to the pole of a traffic light.  It was a feral kitten, apparently from a nearby homeless encampment, surrounded by speeding cars.

I stayed with the cat while James and Mary walked to a local store to get some cat food.  It was very, very skittish.  I had to stay between it and the streets, as it was constantly trying to cross them. It wanted to get away from the noise of all the vehicles — and me.  It did not want me anywhere near it … and ran if I got too close.

While I was waiting, it spent some of the time eating garbage from a pile of old food, left on the side of the road.

When James and Mary returned, we were able to distract it will some real food long enough for me to catch it.  I passed it off to James for the one mile walk home, as he is the real “cat person” in the family.

Today it is doing quite well.  It is eating, drinking and using the litter box without any obvious problems.  It really is “all bone”, so it doesn’t have much energy and isn’t “playing” yet.  However, James has broken through its fear of being touched and has started petting/grooming, with very positive results.

No obvious fleas and clear eyes (behind that dry crust) are very positive signs.  He/She simply needs time to eat, drink, rest and recover.

Notes:

We spotted the kitten at the red dot, next to the pole for the traffic lights.

Here are some shots of James being allowed to pet the kitten.  He definitely has a way with cats.

 

The line behind the kitten is a feather fishing pole cat toy.

 

 

 

 

This is where we found the kitten, next to the pole in the picture on the right.

 

 

 

 

Mary checked out the pile of garbage that was our new friend’s home.