Discernment: prompt
He Didn’t Belong
Not the right place or time
We first heard him on a night walk with our dogs. It was early summer 2019.
A soft miaow. So soft Ben didn't hear. But, I did.
I searched the shadows and saw him. A young gray and white cat in the backyard of a neighbor’s townhome. He was thin but not starving. But, his pleading miaow told me he was hungry.
Ben went back to our home and retrieved a can of cat food. He popped the pull-top and walked toward the kitty with his offering. The cat scurried back into the darker shadows. Ben set the can on the ground, and we moved slowly away, watching to see him slink from the darkness and eat from the can.
The next morning, we found the empty can.
This became our almost nightly ritual. We’d look in the same shadows for the same cat. At first, he was there about 50% of the time. Then, almost 100%. We never left on our 9 pm walk without a can of cat food.
We named him Miaow and soon could pet him — slightly, for a moment.
The neighbor, Betty, in whose yard he waited, also noticed him. Sometimes offering food during the day. Sometimes, sitting on her small back patio, urging him to come for a pet. Which he did, for a moment.
