I thought I was in the clear. The latest a new feline has ever shown up on my farm was September, and that was a young adult intact tom (Sweet Sweet) back in 2005. By the time the holidays roll around, stray cats aren't even on my radar, and my own cats have lost all interest in going outside until spring. So of course my eyes were blind to all things feline when I went out to clean the barn two days after Thanksgiving.
My eyes may have been blind, but my ears weren't deaf. As I leaned over to scoop up a pile of horse manure in my indoor arena, I heard the unmistakable spit of an angry feline behind me. I turned around in surprise and saw a kitten standing on a wooden pallet, all puffed up, trying to make himself look as large and intimidating as possible, spitting his little guts out at Pippin. Poor little twerp was scared to death of goofy Pip, who was just trying to get close enough to get a good sniff of the newbie. It was darn good that the baby was so fixated on Pip, though, because he didn't even seem to notice when I walked up from behind and grabbed him up into my arms (he sure spat at me then, though).
I carried him immediately into the house and into my master bathroom. When I placed him on the floor, he hissed at me and tried to get away from me as quickly as possible, but he was so frozen and so weak that all he could do was slowly stagger to the other side of the room. He was nothing but skin and bones (almost as severely starved as Roxie when she first showed up). I don't know how long he'd been on his own, but in our very cold northern MN temps at that time of year, it wouldn't have taken long without food for him to get in that condition. He was so frozen that he couldn't even eat, and I'd never had a starving feline show up who wouldn't eat before. He had me mighty concerned, I'll tell you.
He tucked himself into a hidey hole between my vanity and tub surround and slept for several hours, letting his emaciated little body warm up to a functional temp again. Once he was adequately warm, his appetite kicked in, and he lapped up every drop of the canned food soup I left for him.
Here he is in his hidey hole, shortly after I brought him inside. Funny thing is, he's not even long-haired. He just poofed up his coat to try to warm himself.
