Have I told you about Louis? (Pronounced the French way -” “Loo-ee”)

Louis is a neighbourhood stray we’ve seen around for a long time. He’s very skittish and would normally run as soon as he saw us. But when we started feeding Furby outside (before taking him in), we’d often find Louis at the food dish. So when Furby started coming in for dinner, we decided to keep a bowl of food out for Louis. Over time, we noticed that he usually come not long after we filled the dish up. He figured out our schedule and was making sure he was nearby to get first dibs (Our neighbor’s cat Fryburger, and Orange Boy – another skittish stray who is Lemmy’s doppelganger – were helping themselves too).

Then the last few weeks, Louis was often sitting on the mat at the side door (food dish is on the side porch) waiting for us to come out and feed him. He still won’t let us touch him, but he only moves a few feet away while we fill the dish, and immediately moves back in when we walk away.

Now, Louis has been around for a while, and obviously survived many winter on his own. But Dave worries. He was lamenting the Louis wasn’t using Furby’s heated cat house (neither is Furby… but whatever). Louis knows it’s there – we have camera footage of him poking his head in once. But Louis rarely goes in the backyard. Dave wanted to make something smaller we could have on or near the porch.

I told him (for about the 10th time since BEFORE he got Furby’s house)… cats don’t need anything big. Or heated for that matter. It just needs to be insulated – their body heat in a small insulated space will keep them nice and toasty.

Finally, he listened. he found an old crate that held records, put a final side on it, insulated it, cut an entrance hole and put it on the porch. (He was also very happy it fit perfectly under one of my flower pots, so it wasn’t immediately apparently there was a cat house there.)

Louis ignored it for about a week. Then I said maybe he didn’t like the foil insulation and we should add some straw. It worked like a charm!

Louis is almost always in there in the morning waiting for breakfast. And he spends a good part of the day napping in there too.

Dave can see from the dining room window whether he’s in there or not, so Dave is happy. And Im wondering how long it will be before Louis will let me pet him.

And… if you’re wondering about the name… it’s because he has super light eyes, and it reminded Dave of his favourite vampire. (I’m more of a fan of Lestat.. but Louis is more appropriate)