A random cat willing to do anything to live with a stranger
A random cat willing to do anything to live with a stranger
Erin Breean first observed this weird cat while walking her dog with her boyfriend in Austin, Texas.
“Since it’s hot here, we walk our dog late at night – it was midnight,” Breean told The Dodo. “We’re about two blocks from the house, and this cat is sitting at the end of an alley. We’re pretty familiar with all the cats in the area because we walk our dog all the time, but I had never seen this cat.”
The cat appeared friendly and well-fed, so Breean assumed it belonged to someone but had been separated from them.
“He came up to us and rubbed on our ankles,” Breean explained. “However, when my dog came up to visit him, [the cat] tried to bite him and chased him down the street a little bit.” So we separated them, and my boyfriend went home with our dog.”
Breean stayed outside with the cat for a few moments to photograph it. She wanted to share the photos on Austin’s Lost and Found Facebook page, in case he was still missing.
“The cat was sitting with me the whole time, rubbing on me and rolling around on his belly to get rubbed, and he was very sweet,” Breean explained.
When Breean tried to go home, the cat, whom she nicknamed Greg, followed her.
“I told him, ‘Hey, man, don’t follow me home if you live on the street or at your house,'” Breean explained.
Greg, on the other hand, showed no signs of leaving. He parked in front of Breean’s house and watched her through the window as she entered. Breean, fearing that he was hungry, served him food and drink, which seemed to encourage him even more.
“He sat for almost an hour next to that little window,” Breean says. “Eventually, I realized I just had to ignore him or he wouldn’t go home, or wherever he came from.”
Breean and her boyfriend thought Greg was finally home when he disappeared through the window of the house. But they were wrong once again.
“I went into the kitchen to make myself something to eat, but when I sat down on the couch, I was horrified to see someone watching me,” Breean explained.
Greg was now watching them from the back of the house through a window.
“He was just sitting there watching us on the couch watching TV,” Breean explained. “He sat there yelling for over an hour.” He tried to come in through the dog door, then curled up … and fell asleep.”
Greg returned the next morning and stayed all day. He also accompanied Breean and her companion on their evening walk with Murphy, their dog.
“We walk our dog about a mile, and he was with us the whole time and trying to chase our dog,” Breean explained.
For four days, he didn’t let Breean out of his sight.
He kept glancing out the windows the whole time.
“You could come downstairs at any time of night… “All you’d see would be those glowing eyes,” Breean explained. “He was looking through the blinds. It was both amusing and unsettling…and then, after a while, you’d start waiting and looking for him. He was continually keeping an eye on you.”
Meanwhile, Breean was trying to figure out who Greg belonged. She made several posts about him on social media, but no one claimed him. She even made a paper collar for him and stuck a message on it in hopes that he would return to his owner, who would be informed of Greg’s wanderings, but that didn’t work either.
She didn’t want to take Greg to the local shelter or the vet, which she felt would be traumatic for him, especially since he seemed healthy and well cared for.
“My own cat [Max] is very sweet, and he’s been known to go to our neighbors’ houses and break in and spend time with them,” Breean says. “I didn’t want to take him [Greg] to the Humane Society or the vet or anything [until I knew he needed help]…because I wouldn’t want anyone to take Max anywhere.”
She was tempted to leave Greg inside at times but realized that was a horrible idea because he might assault Murphy again.
Fortunately, a volunteer from Austin’s Lost and Found Pet Services arrived with a microchip scanner and was able to identify Greg’s owner from the information on his chip.
“Randomly one night, around 9 or 10 p.m., I got a text from the owner,” Breean explains. “He told me, ‘Hey, you’ve got Kylo.'” “Is that the cat? I asked. Yeah, he said. Do you have him? Yes, he’s here,” I replied. Right now, he’s sitting in my backyard.”
Michael Navarrete, Kylo’s owner, resided in an apartment building a few blocks away, and Kylo had unwittingly gone out one night. That night, Navarrete came looking for him.
“He [Navarrete] was overjoyed to meet him,” Breean explained. “He sobbed for five minutes.”
Breean is relieved that Kylo is back in his rightful place, even though she and her boyfriend strangely miss him.
“The other day, my boyfriend said, ‘I wonder what Greg is up to,'” Breean explained. “And I thought, ‘Me too.'”
Breean shared the anecdote on Catspotting, a secret Facebook community for cat lovers, while reminiscing about Greg’s time, and it quickly went viral.
“He was determined to get into the house, whether it was to live with us, call his dad or murder my dog,” Breean added. “I don’t know which. But he was determined.”
