While working my morning shift at my day job, I happened to grab two cans of generic cat food for about $1. I wanted to try to catch this little guy as the weather is going to get bad. I get off work at 5:30 P.M. and I check and see that the cat had eaten what I had poured out of the cup. I wanted to wait longer and try to get him at night. 9 P.M. rolls around and I get out of my trailer completely bundled and I open the first can of cat food. I place near the Solo cup and decide that an hour is a good waiting time. I return at 10 P.M. to find the contents of the can completely licked clean. I am baffled. It pulled the wool over my eyes and had himself a good meal on my two quarters. I decided to switch up my times to check on him from an hour to anywhere from five to fifteen minute increments.
I would see that a nibble or two would be taken from the can. I wanted to test it and I wanted to put the Solo cup over the can to see what he does. I come back out fifteen minutes later to find the cup knocked over and half of the can digested. The time is getting late and I had a shift at work that was almost half a day. I needed to get some rest. The time was now 1 A.M.
The biggest question on my mind was simple; "Was it really a cat?"
I grabbed my Kodak that I shot portions of Into the Madness with; the tripod light; and a plastic bag. The light and it's tripod screws wouldn't fit with the camera in the bag. I decided to undo the light from the screws and throw both items into the bag. As I went back outside to the spot, I tried to set the camera as upright as possible in the small opening. I placed the Solo cup over the food again to see what happens and I leave to go back inside.
I come out and check on it within a half hour, surprisingly, the cup was still over the can of food. Was he gone or was he full from the previous can? Puzzled, I went back inside. I kept running the possibilities through my head on this cat. Finally, 2 A.M. arrived and I decided to call it a night. I went back to check and oddly, the cup was still over the can of food. I brought the camera and light back inside and pulled out the SDHC card from the camera and placed it in my netbook.
I watched the footage for the first two minutes. Getting bored quickly, I decided to skip ahead. As I skipped ahead, I noticed a brown blur on the screen and realized that I had captured an encounter on video. I tried to go back as fast as I could and lo and behold, from the left side of my screen; it reveals itself. It didn't walk in from the opening, but, from the left which tells me that it was back at the front of my trailer and was watching me the whole time. I found it to be a slick little cat. Watching its motions on the video, he's a curious little one.
Saturday was different story. In the morning, I decided to grab a torn up wife-beater and rubbed it on my body to give my scent off to the cat to show it that I am not a threat. The last thing I want to do is show it harm. I left for work and as soon as I arrived something bad happened. A snow storm came in briefly, but, the temperatures dropped. I decided to grab some more cans of cat food and some catnip to get him going. I got home at 11 P.M. and I feel my whole face freezing while waiting for a cab. I got down and went underneath my trailer, I noticed that my shirt had muddy paw prints all over it which lead to me calling out for the cat. I got no response. I opened a can of food and left it out.
As I checked on it, there was no bites. I kept going out and for one of the first times that I prayed that the storm did not take the cat out. 3 A.M. comes and goes and for the final time that night, nothing. I started to feel horrible that I couldn't have actually snagged him instead of putting my camera down there. I decided to go to bed and not having a good night's sleep. I kept hoping that when I got up on Sunday, the can would be munched, I was wrong.
I hope he's ok. I only know him from this one minute of video.
