ONE MYSTERY SOLVED

As Inspector Clouseau would say, "The case has been solve-ed."

Thursday evening was a long one.  Around 12:30AM I was still working at the computer; Annie had been pestering me to go on the back porch since midnight.  Occasionally she can be so annoying, playing "In again out again Finnegan" at the most inconvenient times.

Having already taken care of her "last call before bedtime" needs, I immediately knew why she was pestering me - or so I thought.  Just before the nudging, pushing and pestering started, the sound of two cats squaring off could be heard coming from somewhere in the back yards.  Annie just had to get out to see what was happening.  Even with the noise long gone, Annie wasn't about to give up.

I finally broke down and let her out.  She raced from one end of the porch to the other, excitedly sniffing as she went.  Poking her head through the bars, Annie surveyed our yard for any hidden cats.  She kept craning her neck in an attempt to get a better view of the area under the porch, figuring someone must be hiding there.  I went back to my emails.

After five minutes or so, I heard her crying and whining.  Before that went full-blown into incessant barking, I went to the back door to get her in and noticed she had assumed that stock-still position beagles are so fond of using just before they pounce.  I stepped onto the porch and the barking began.  A quick visual scan of the surrounding yards in the direction of Annie's interest produced an unexpected result.  

There, scaling my next-door neighbor's chain link fence was Pat!  I called Artie and we managed to corral an excited Annie and get her inside before all the commotion completely freaked Pat out.  Once the noise stopped, Pat positioned himself atop the fence and with back turned to us became very still.  I guess this is a ploy to blend in with the nighttime surroundings.

We both came in to get some strawberries put aside in the event of such an opportunity. Artie took them out and placed them in Pat's dish.  Within 2 seconds one of the strays hopped the fence to inspect the offering then moved on when the food wasn't enticing enough.  We knew Pat wouldn't move for awhile so we came in and locked up for the night.

The strawberries were gone this morning; the dish turned upside down.  Now that we know Pat is OK and still coming around, we are both determined to get video footage.  The watch is on!

BTW, Annie had to have scented Pat.  We will have to pay better attention to her behavior for subtle differences which might indicate to us if Pat's around or if it's just the usual group of strays.  Now to find out what happened to the Norwegian Forest Cat.