I was walking down a back alley one night when I heard a small black cat meowing at me. I carried cat food with me pretty much all the time because I care for a colony of feral cats at my workplace, so I had food for her. I fed her but she didn’t want me to touch her, and she seemed in good health, so I went on my way.

I went back the next day to check on her, and she was waiting for me. At that time, I saw she had a clipped ear, so I knew she had been part of a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program. We kept feeding her and were eventually able to touch her, and we put out a plea on Facebook for a foster home for her. My mom messaged me saying she wanted the kitty. I thought she was joking at first, but no, she really meant it, so my brother drove the cat five hours to east Texas where our mom lives. The cat had never been inside a house before, and was understandably nervous. She hid behind a bathtub for the first month, only coming out to eat. At one point, she was so stressed she stopped eating and my mom had to feed her by hand. But now, a year later, she is a fat, sassy, spoiled house kitty who rules the roost and sleeps on my mom’s chest at night and greets her at the door every day.

Community cats have value and deserve life and love and care wherever they are.