Mom, look!

That is what my middle child was saying as the door opened from outside.  It was followed by the words:

I caught a stray!

Which was proven by middle child carrying INTO THE HOUSE (upside down, no less) a striped cat.  It looked like this one, only bigger.  This is not a picture of the actual cat, I got this picture off Google.  This all happened in mere seconds, no time for pictures.

So, about the time I looked up from the stove and saw the cat, I said "Oh, no,...." but I didn't get to finish that sentence because the cat saw Patches.  Remember Patches?  Patches saw the cat, the cat righted itself, jumped down and flew out the still open door with Patches hot on his tail (lol).  Didn't know the old man still had it in him!

So, out the door go the striped cat, then Patches, then the child who brought in the cat (trying to catch them), then the youngest child, followed by me yelling for the kids to stop chasing the cats!

(Don't you wish you were here to witness this crazy parade??)

Middle child is crying because 'I lost our cat!'  Youngest is crying because they didn't get to see the new kitty.  (lol)

Middle child just wanted to bring Patches a friend so he'd have someone to play and cuddle with, he says.  Sit them both down on the porch and explain that grown up boy kitties don't like to share their homes (how on Earth did I not pass this info. along before now???) and that's why Patches was running the other one off.  I'm glad the other one ran, honestly, because Patches does have all his claws and I'm sure the other one probably does, too, and it could have been a real mess.  So, I get that explained, tell them that I know Patches will be back, he knows where the food comes from, but I'm going to go see if I can find him in the wood line, so stay on the porch.

I go crawling under the brush (literally, my big butt crawling to get in there, not a pretty sight, glad for no pictures of that part) and see Patches.  Thankfully he'd stopped on our side of a fence line.  I was talking to him and got about 5 feet from him when that other cat came back within eyesight of Patches and off he went again, out of the brush, back through the yard to the other side and back in the brush over there.

Mama is less than amused.  Crawl back out of the bushes, cross the yard, crawl back in bushes.  Oh, thorny vines, yippee!  Finally caught the darn cat and crawled out while keeping a firm grip on him and get him back to the house.

Mommy saves the day, yay!  I bet Patches slept well last night.  That's the most exercise he's had in years!  lol.

I'm sure the cat wasn't a stray, too, just someone's outside cat.  It was in great shape, well fed, shiny coat and friendly enough that my kid could easily catch it and carry it to the house.

Ended the event with this:

The next time you catch that cat (because there WILL be a next time, I know), just bring it to the porch to show it to all of us, OK?

OK, Mom.