Cute Cat Encounter

[Krista2882]

A little over a month ago I went on a self-guided photo tour of local factories- more specifically old, broken-down ones. I knew the city well, but I decided to take a ride down this short side-street I'd never been down before. I didn't expect a factory at all, but there was one. On one side of the road was a relatively small abandoned factory. One of those awesome ones that's caving in and overgrown and graffitied. Totally fascinating. Anyway, it was in a residential neighborhood. It was a short street but the factory took up one side of the street and the opposite side was some houses.
Anyway, I parked in the small parking lot and took a bunch of pictures. When I got back in my car, I looked across the street and two cats were watching me. There was a gray one and an orange one. Their body types were very similar and their faces looked the same so I think they were siblings. Anyway, the gray one was sitting on the corner of the road and the driveway, and the orange one was back farther in the yard. I switched lenses and started taking pictures of them. The orange one walked up closer and joined the gray one at the end of the driveway. Then they decided to come investigate. They were super cute. While they were walking, the gray one stretched his head over, and the orange one bowed his head so that they nuzzled their heads together. Then the gray one kept rubbing up against the orange one's side as they made their way over to my car. It was so cute. Anyway, I was in my car leaning out the window taking pictures. I didn't want to spook them by opening the door, so I just watched them and took pictures from in my car. Then all of a sudden two more cats came out of nowhere! LOL. They just kind of appeared at my car. They were both long-haired gray tabby cats. One of them was really aloof and quickly assessed the situation and then walked over to the opposite side of the parking lot to observe. The other one joined the orange and gray one in coming over and sniffing my car and just being plain curious.
Anyway, it was a really cute surprise to be visited by a bunch of cats and I thought I'd share with you guys. Maybe later I'll post some of the pictures I took. I had to use a lens that is manual focus only, and since they were moving so much, I didn't get a lot of pictures of them in focus.

[Krista2882]

I just noticed the orange one doesn't have a tail!!
A couple pics:

[shan841]

wow those are some good looking cats! i love when they love on each other!

[Greenport ferals]

Those are nice looking cats! I love the head-butting photo.
It appears they are doing well.

[Claiken]

They do appear well fed... from some source or another. Better than seeing extremely skinny cats outside!

[Krista2882]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they belong to someone, as well as the other two cats who showed up.Although, I don't think I'd let my cat outside if I lived on that street. The street is really quiet, but there's a very busy road at the end.

[Nan]

I really love that first one, too! So sweet!

[Krista2882]

Weird coincidence- our local newspaper had an article about this factory and about how the last people who are recorded to have owned it was some group whose members have since died, so it kind of belongs to no one and it's decaying and overgrown, and is home to a bunch of stray cats. So I'm thinking that those cats I saw maybe are strays. But since it's in a residential area, the neighbors feed the cats. We drove by because my parents wanted to look at the place after me telling them about it and then them reading it in the newspaper. We drove by and that orange cat came darting into the road and running alongside our car. and then we looked over to a broken doorway in the factory and a black and white cat was sitting there in the doorway. My mom loves cats as much as I do, and she was like, "Let's take them home!" So I told her we couldn't take the orange one without the gray one because they're buddies. But we didn't see the gray one anywhere. I think she was kind of serious though. And if I knew they were definitely strays, I would have totally taken them. But I don't think my dad was super keen on the idea, and I don't think our Callie would be, either. She didn't really get along with Puffy so well, and she doesn't get along with many people so well, so I can't imagine what she would be like with two other cats.
But I'm a bit worried now, seeing as the factory was in the paper as something they want to take care of- so what if they don't check to make sure all the cats are out before they start taking the building down? I hope the neighbors will take the cats in, but I kind of want to go over and rescue all of them now. lol
It seems like there must be a lot of stray cats if it was something they mentioned in the paper, and I've now seen 5 different cats there.

[Leazie]

The pair is so sweet. Your Mom sounds like a great person. Hopefully nothing will happen fast with that factory and the kitties will be ok.

[Krista2882]

I drove by the factory again a few days ago because I can go home from work that way even though I don't usually. There are actually TWO orange cats! They were sitting next to each other and it actually looked like they both were missing their tails. So weird. So now I can't tell which one was the one I saw that first time who is friends with the gray cat because they look exactly alike and neither has a tail.
The black and white one was there again too in the same spot as a couple days earlier.
So now with the second orange cat, that's 6 different stray cats I've seen there now. I'm glad someone in the neighborhood seems to be feeding them, though.