© Patrick Ward
Maria searched and eventually found five. Time went by, the kittens grew, and Maria brought them things to eat. At first they ran away, but hunger overcame fear, and they would let her pet them while they ate.
As the kittens grew up, they started to disappear. We all assumed that coyotes or owls were getting them. Our 'cat count' dwindled to three, including an additional one that had been bought to the plant & abandoned.
Maria fretted over what to do. She picked the abandoned cat, named him Tony Tunes, and took him home. Danny liked to roam the buildings where we worked at night and stroll up and down the aisles meowing loudly. He would hang around watching us work, then sleep somewhere inside the buildings. Management had traps set out to catch the cats, but Maria would free them before she went home at night.
Maria pleaded with me to "adopt" Danny, even though I was allergic. She had him fixed, then set him free at my house in the country. I would set a bowl of cat food outside, and every couple of days he would venture out of the bush after sundown, gobble up the whole bowl, then disappear again. Gradually, he started to hang around closer to the house.
It was slowly becoming apparent that my lifelong allergy to cats had disappeared, so I began to let him inside the house to eat, and I experimentally let him stay inside the house during the rain. He started to use a litter box and cat-scratcher as soon as I put them out.
Although he has been at my house for less than a year, Danny has been well behaved and loving, and he likes to venture outside for a couple of hours each day. The ritual petting while eating has continued, and Danny will "Meow, meow, meow", to lead me to his food bowl to keep him company while eating. Danny has transformed himself from a Filthy Factory Cat to a Certified Beautiful House Cat. As a first time cat owner, I couldn't be happier.