Cat talk

The two yard cats had been born feral and spent four months in the yard before we managed to catch them.

After the trip to the SPCA under its Spay an Neuter program, they spent two weeks in the house and were released back into the yard.

In the green space between the redwoods, they went to work, reducing the rodent population. In their ample spare time, they  dozed in the sun or the shade.

Interaction with the humans was limited but friendly. They'd show up to say hello to the residents when they felt like it or wanted to collect a few pets. The black female had the friendlier personality, the male behaved more like you would imagine a cat cowboy. He was a cat of few words, and, in human terms, his greetings were a pretty good analogy to the cowboy's slow walk and a tip of the hat.

Fast forward by a year.

All of a sudden, the black cat becomes very talkative. Unlike the previous intermittent contact, she is always right there at the door when a human comes or goes.
She meows a lot, which makes the humans check the water dish, then check the nooks and crannies where unfriendly wildlife might hang out.

The cowboy cat, on the other hand, is his usual quiet self. The weather took a turn to balmy and sunny a couple of weeks before this and he spends a lot of his time on the table next to the BBQ.

The behavior of the black female does not change. She rubs up against the humans and meows, rubs up some more, meows some more.

A couple of days into the sudden change of the black cat's behavior, the humans begin speculating about causes.

Maybe she is just becoming friendlier, they are almost adults now, and we have treated them okay. Well, with the exception of the two week's of captivity.

Another few days later, the humans start to settle into the new routine. Then they notice something.

The cowboy cat stands up on the table and takes a few steps forward.

He is limping badly on one of his hind legs.

The vet performed an x ray and explained the cat had had a broken femur for about a week.

Immediately after plucking the cowboy from the yard, the humans were surprised to see that the black cat reverted to her prior behavior.