So let’s tackle Piper this week, shall we? She’s my latest cat rescue. When I fostered her and her sister, they were on the border of being beyond socializing at 4-months-old. Fortunately, her sister blossomed and was adopted. Piper, on the other hand, remained a scaredy cat — too young to relocate but too feral to be adopted. I thought, UH OH, here we go again. Meet my failed foster # 8.

Piper has a sweet and loving disposition when she’s not afraid of her shadow; in other words she’s a big chicken. Once her sister was adopted we spent more time together, mainly with her in the cat tree in my office, eyeing my every move at my desk. Sometimes she slowly made her way down to plop on my lap and receive a few pets before tearing off into the guest room if I moved too quickly.

Slowly, Piper tried to fit in with the other cats. She’d jump Savannah in a playful manner, which was rarely received that way. Savannah, who normally is mellow as smooth wine, swiped at her before attempting to bite her. Being toothless meant she only succeeded in gumming Piper, who looked totally confused but quickly determined Savannah wasn’t a threat.

Try as Piper might to play with someone, nobody in my feline family seemed interested. Now don’t get me wrong; most of mine are older and apparently a bunch of fuddy-duddies. But that didn’t stop her from trying. She’ll even roll onto her back in front them, exposing her belly. She’s very trusting, that one. Their usual reaction before walking away is to stare at her as if she’s lost her mind.

Piper’s quirks are to place her paws into her bowl of water and splash about. She constantly drops her favorite stuffed mouse in it as well. And somehow she has figured out how to open the toilet seat lid to where I now have to place something heavy on it. Yep, she has a thing for water.

As time went on, Piper became well-acquainted with the house and yard by sitting at the windows for hours. So one day I let her out to join the others in the backyard, which was catified. Big mistake. BIG. Piper seemed to like it so much, she wouldn’t come back inside. I tried into early morning to coax her back in with no luck.

The next morning I learned the yard wasn’t fully catified; Piper was gone. I was devastated, fearing she’d be hit by a car, killed by a coyote or lost and couldn’t find her way back. Each day I walked the neighborhood calling her name and left out food and water. I placed an ad on nextdoor.com with her photo, asking neighbors to keep an eye out for her. Still nothing.

On the third night, very late in the evening, I was heading to my backyard shed when I heard something. I ran inside, grabbed my flashlight and shined it on the fence. It was Piper! She made her way back but was too frightened to come down. It took quite a while to lead her into the house with food.

Famished and exhausted, but oh so happy to be back, she ate a ton, then crashed. My cats seemed happy to see her and sniffed every inch of her body. Now my yard is completely catified so even Houdini, AKA Skye, can’t get out. But to play it safe, I bought Piper an Apple AirTag tracker. She wears it around her neck but keeps removing it and has no interest in going outside. And to that I say…

These days, Piper is content to spend hours looking out the windows, especially into the front yard where, to entertain her, I hung a bird feeder and placed a bird bath. So now you have the skinny on Piper. That’s eight down, 2 more to go. Hang in everybody, we’re gettin’ there!