The other day I was talking to a neighbor four or five houses down the
block. The conversation turned to animals and I mentioned Fluffy, the
beautiful buff-colored longhair cat that moved in with us several
months ago.

She turned out to be their cat, Dixie. There was no mistaking it as she
has a distinctive crook on the very end of her tail. They got her as a
kitten and she lived with them for about seven years.

Evidently she became unhappy there and decided to move. For several
weeks I would see her come over the back fence from the creek bed to
eat the food I left out for the coons. As soon as she saw us she would
take off, but it wasn't long before we made friends. After a while, she
got bolder and would try to sneak into the house to eat Kitty and
Smokey's cat food.

Thinking she was feral and might have diseases my other cats could
catch, I tried to run her out. She wouldn't give up so I took her to
the vet for testing. She came back with a clean bill of health so we
got her shots, and eventually had her microchipped.

She is now Queen Cat of the household and spends most of her time
sleeping on our bed. I don't know exactly what her relationship is with
the other two guys, but they all seem to get along most of the time,
and she and Smokey, our neutered, spraying, fighting champ of the
neighborhood, really seem to like each other. She and Kitty, the other
neutered male have some issues, but everyone generally lives in
harmony.

When she first came here she didn't like to be touched and would bite
hard enough to draw blood if I tried to pick her up. Now, she is the
most affectionate cat I have ever seen. She loves to sit on our laps
and when my wife or I am working on our computers, she is right there
sleeping on the desk or standing beside the keyboard purring and
pushing her face into ours to be petted.

We feel so lucky that she chose us to move in with. I don't know if
Kitty and Smokey feel the same way, but like I said, they adjusted.