I was really pleased, for once, to be without a pet. My mom was watching my black cat Betty, and they had bonded, to the (convenient for me) point that I didn't want to separate them.
I came home one night, hungry, and cooked a hamburger. I'm sure I was making too much noise, it was after midnight. I took my food outside to eat it and there was a skinny tabby cat sitting there, meowing. She showed no fear. I gave her bites of hot hamburger which she ate. I told her to go home and went inside.
The next morning, she was still there. And the next. I kept telling her to go home. And the next afternoon, I went to the dollar store across the street and bought a round red basin decorated with something like bunnies carrying parasols and a sack of cat litter.
She left for the day on a Friday in February 2020 and didn't come home. My one job was to care for her and I failed at it. I didn't even want her at first, and now I'm sure I will never get over letting her out that day.
These are some of the pictures I took on her first day with me.