She first appeared before the summer really started, tentatively at first as if she tippy toed on hot iron sand, just a faint little meee..aw, so faint it could barely be heard. Her ears twitched anxiously and she positioned herself on the deck outside my window, ready for flight. But she managed a little milk.
The next afternoon she came again, not quite as fearful, not quite as anxious as before, hungry tongue positioned for lapping.
The third time she appeared she seemed to strut ever so slightly, tail held high and the kitty-cat sounds emanating from her were louder.
I wondered who she had belonged to and what her name had been but by then I had named her Nearly because she was nearly mine.
A month or more passed and she claimed her place on the bottom of my bed with plaintive and persistent shrieks through the window glass one rainy night. One graceful leap and she was inside, demanding food, indignant that I had kept her waiting. Her name is Totally - she is now totally mine.