In the parking lot of the building that I work at we have a collection of broken monitors and bench seats taken out of news vehicles. I would go out every week or so and see if anything useful was being thrown out. Usually I would scare away a feral cat or two that was sleeping amongst the junk.

I started to recognize one or two of them. As time went on, I saw that one looked like she was pregnant. She looked like a typical tabby cat, but with a brown/orange coat and reminded me of my cat that now lived with my parents. Now I'm a sucker for kitties and this one looked like she wasn't getting enough food so I started bringing a container of dry cat food from home to feed her.

One Sunday evening I came in and one of my coworkers told me that the cat had the kittens and that they had used it as a story during the newscast. We went out and we saw the mother cat underneath a bench seat and I could hear the faint cries of the kittens. I filled up a container with cat food and put it nearby.

I found out later that week that the SPCA came out and took the kittens but were unable to catch the mother cat. Unfortunately the kittens died about a week after they were born.

At the end of a long day, I was talking to a coworker in the parking lot when the mother cat started walking towards us. She got within about 15 feet of us and then sat down on the concrete. She was looking at me in a way that said "OK buddy, I'm hungry. Where's my dinner?"

I tried calling her over, but she wouldn't budge. She just looked at me and did the slow blink that cats do when they are ignoring humans. I had a baggie of beef jerky in my backpack and I reached in and pulled a piece out. I tore a small piece off and tossed it about a foot from the cat. She first looked afraid, but the smell soon had her sniffing the jerky. After a few seconds inspection she started to chow down.

This would be the pattern for the next few weeks. I would head out to my truck and she would appear, never getting too close but close enough to see if I had any food. I started carrying a bag of cat food in my truck so that I can feed her whenever she appears. I managed to get close enough to take a picture of her with my camera, but that is close enough. If my feline masters smell another cat on me I end up with all three of them shedding on my pillow.

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