New addition?

What a week it has been!  Thomas and I returned from Ruidoso on Friday evening, and the laundry list of to-do's just filled in the blanks.

 

A major feat was Tom's fix for the dryer, which has gotten noisier and noisier with every load.  Thomas, my hero, pulled it apart, vacuumed out the mess of lint inside the box, and then replaced the wheel that had cracked up.  It runs so much better now - one expense removed from our list!  No new dryer for a while anyway!

 

The new addition referred to is The Tom, aka Felix.  I hesitated to post this, as it seemed maybe he wasn't really staying.  Two weeks ago Friday, on our way home from Marie & Dave's, Tom saw a black cat by the horse barn.  On Halloween I saw a dark gray cat run past the front door.  Then on Sunday, while coming in from the field, I saw the cat dash behind the porch on the west side.  I walked over and called for it.  He stuck his head out from under the mud room and meowed for me.  Later while on the phone, the cat sat right in front of the door and meowed an meowed and meowed. 

 

Tom came in from the shop, and we just watched him.  (I keep saying him, but it is just our hunch that it is a boy.  Haven't checked.)  I was snacking on some pretzels and cheese, so I cut a few pieces and offered them to him.  Clearly this isn't some feral cat, as he then swirled around me legs over and over, just rubbing up to me.  Then he followed Tom into his shop and was happy to just nose around.  I made a trash run and nicked a scoop of cat food from Pop & Ma.  The Tom is especially skinny, and though there are mice a plenty, a little food, I am told, might seal the deal on his residence at our place.

 

Anyone who knows me knows I am allergic.  This cat will not be coming inside.  Of course, we then had a dumping of snow Monday night, and Tom was worried from some tracks to the SE that this might just be a Nolan cat that wandered over for our cheese.  We didn't see him for a couple of days, thus casting a shadow of doubt over whether there really is a new addition or not.  Last night he was back, which pleased Tom greatly!