Mini update: Orlean

When I wrote about Orlean back in December, we were lucky to touch a fingertip to her nose before the skittish stray would give a swat or just zip off under a shelf. Leslie maintains that she really does want to be friendly, but just hasn't quite learned to trust us enough yet.

In holdout cases such as this, sometimes a small amount of trickery is needed in order for a breakthrough to occur.

On Monday night, Orlean was showing off for a few cats she's made friends with. She'd just managed to get one of them to wash her rear end and was feeling pretty pleased with herself when I took advantage of a moment's distraction and reached down to stroke her back and give her a scratch by the base of her tail. In the few moments it took her to realize this additional attention did not come from one of her cat friends, she quite unreservedly enjoyed the cuddles.

Then she turned around. And proceeded to tell me off - sitting back on her hind legs and lightly whapping at me with both front paws while delivering a series rapid-fire offended meows - before scooting off out of sight.

I went back to the work I'd been doing. When I happened to look around a few minutes later, there she was, sitting a short distance away, watching me with curiosity.

I managed to get in a few more quick flyby strokes over the next hour or so. Each time she'd scoot off, and each time she'd be back a short time after, come to check out what I was doing.

She can't resist us for much longer, we're sure!