I was walking the dog in the back yard and saw a face I didn’t expect.
He or she must have gotten trapped in there a few days ago, maybe even a week or two. Poor thing!
I’ve put out some of our cat’s food and some water. And a litter box. (This explains the poop I found in there a few days ago. And it explains how the moving blanket I had over a pinball machine in restoring was on the floor the other day.)
We think it’s a neighborhood cat named Tubby. Her brother lives at another house, but she’s more feral.
She definitely took off and hid in the back corner when I tried to get close. Unfortunately there’s a bunch of stuff back there, and I don’t see any reason to spook her further. I don’t want to force her out into the rain. Now that I think about it, our dog was very interested in that corner a few days ago.
I’ll open the door a bit so she can get out, but with the rain, she might not be interested in leaving. And how will I know if she’s gone?
The garage is heated but I have the thermostat set to just keep it from freezing in there. Still warmer than outside though. I told my wife we may have just adopted a garage cat.
One more update - the neighbor (who is on a cruise right now) was very apologetic, but my wife was like, “Do you know my husband? He loves cats.” Our neighbor does know me, but she may not have realized that our cats are really mine, and I’m the one that brought a cat into the relationship. Tubby wandered into probably the best possible garage, from that point of view.
I do hope she comes back to visit, ideally without getting trapped this time. I haven’t seen her since just after the picture above. Maybe we should install a one way cat door - let them out, but not back in, if that’s a thing.