She adopted me. Really.

I say the park stray kitten adopted me because she showed up at my doorstep, spent a couple days checking me out, and then moved in.

Now she doesn’t want to go outside. Ever.

The Rangers and I first noticed her in the park about four days earlier. I tried a few times to coax her over to me, but she would have none of it.

Last weekend I dreamed about Checkers for the first time since her passing, if ever. It was a good dream, I got to hold her, she was happy and sitting in her favorite spot in the RV.

The next morning I went outside to empty the holding tanks (so I could take a shower without the water coming up the drain), when I see the stray kitten dart under my car. I look underneath the car, but don’t see her.

???

Then the chassis started meowing.

So I meowed back. What was I supposed to do? Don’t pretend you wouldn’t have meowed to the chassis, too.

Again the chassis meowed. So, again, I meowed in return.

This meowing back and forth went on for a while. I put out food, she came down from inside the chassis and ate her weight in cat food. While she ate, I went to take that shower (before my odor could scare her off). At that time she was hiding up in the RV chassis.

When I came outside an hour later, she was napping on my doorstep.

?!?!

The first scene replayed (meowing, eating), and then I went inside, leaving the door open. This happened next…

She must have liked the place because she spent the next few hours sleeping in the living room.

When she woke up, she wanted to “go” outside rather than use the litter box I’d set up. She didn’t want to come back in.

Until the next morning.

Overnight a pair of foxes showed up and, while Pyewacket was hiding in the RV chassis, they ate the cat food I’d put out. She was probably terrified. And that is likely the reason, well, that and the food, she has since spent every night inside. She has never once wanted to go out. Oh, and she now uses the litter box instead of the yard.

Are you wondering about her name? Those of you of “a certain age” may remember the movie Bell, Book and Candle with Jimmy Stewart in which there is a cat named Pyewacket. The female lead, Kim Novak, has magical powers and a cat named Pyewacket is her familiar.

Since my Pye mysteriously showed up just when I was looking for a kitty, a name befitting her magical appearance seemed appropriate.

Her timing is quite fortuitous in another way. I may have a paying workcamper gig in Kansas that would start in a week. There are a few important logistics to work out first, but I will need a co-pilot. Pyewacket’s map-reading lessons have already begun.

UPDATE: I’m not going to Kansas in the near future. It’s a bittersweet decision because the Largest Ball of Twine is there. But you’ll be spared, at least for the time being, too many Dorothy/Toto references.

Speaking of pets, Pyewacket is not using the litter box much anymore. She has decided she prefers the carpet. I’ve changed to a larger litter box, changed her litter, clean it once or more a day, and even put her nose in it and told her no and then placed her in the box. I’ve tried feeding her in the spot she peed (after it was cleaned up). Then last night after I got home from hanging with some neighbors, I find she’d peed in my bed. Right in the middle. I’m doing laundry as I type this. She will be going to the shelter if this keeps up.

UPDATE #2: After a trip to the vet, he confirmed her problem is behavioral (probably too long as a feral kitty, even though she must have been around people before that). He recommended something I’d just started doing: Sequestering her, a litter box, a kitty bed, and food and water in a confined room (I chose the bathroom) until she learned to use only the litter box. After a couple successful days of this, I expanded the area to include a larger section, one that included carpet, the medium she seemed to prefer at times to litter. After again expanding her territory to include the living room, so far all is well. It’s been five days since I started the sequestering. The vet said she’s about 5+ months old.