so, its about 6 am or a little before. i hear the thunk on the deck that informs me the girl cat has come home.

i go to open the door for her to come in, and she is growling and there is obviously another cat there that i cant see.  and slowly he comes out of the shadows and oh how handsome and big he is!  he looks like he may be part bengal, like his dad or mom was a bengal.  he is gorgeous.  he does not appear to be in any ill health, and he does not appear to have any malice whatsoever towards the girl cat.

so i am standing in the doorway, trying to get the girl cat in, and out runs our boy cat, my beloved sparta.  now, sparta is a damn good size cat, but a little scawny, being only like 15 months old or something.  so i make a grab for him which startles him and makes him run and almost knock down a folding chair thats still in the kitchen from the reunion.

large handsome intruder cat doesnt budge.  and i cant help it.  i cant.  i am powerless to prevent myself from doing this.  i set out some food.

and he comes to eat it, and he looks hungry, and damn if our cat doesnt come over to peer at him, which makes HELI (Handsome Extra Large Intruder) start making this sound, scares me.  then my boy starts. but they clearly dont really have any desire to hurt each other. i mean, HELI could truly hurt our boy.  which alarms me and i have to go wake keith up and say there is umm, a situation and i might have started it [by putting food out, but i dont tell him that, though the pile of food is very obvious].

and he comes out and doesnt get anything accomplished and goes back to bed. but he does agree with me that HELI is a good looking cat, and large.  i mean fucking large.  thats another reason why i think he might be part bengal. 

 you'll agree this is a bfb, or big fuckin' bengal. i prefer the silvers, but this is a pretty girl.  yeah, thats a girl! 

so our guy (HELI) looks more tabbyish, but his fine fine shape and size, anyway, i digress.  i could so easily become a cat person, in a perfect world where someone else changed the litterbox.

so i dont know how, but somehow i herd HELI off the porch - oh thats right.  i moved the pile of food (he didnt find it.  its still out there), and he went off the deck (we dont have a porch.  would that we did. but i cant get used to saying deck), and i picked up ours and brought him in.  where he spied outside for some time, and is now curled up and sleeping.