Catblogging: Another neighborhood feline

And here is another cat that doesn't actually live with me. I had to use the zoom lens to get this photo on account of he's very shy. We call him Marmalade, but he's not the only marmalade tabby loose in the neighborhood. Scruffy Marmalade passed on this spring, and there's another one we call the Real Marmalade because he was the first marmalade tabby we'd seen in a while. Sometimes we mistake this one for the Real Marmalade, but Scruffy Marmalade was unmistakable. And this one has more white on his feet and chest than the Real Marmalade.

This one is the most persistent of all the marmalade tabbys we've seen here, and the other cats (Elvis and Mrs. Mitty) seem to tolerate him OK. Which is not to say they like him, because they don't. But they do let him up on the porch once in a while to eat the food we leave out there. He hasn't so far let us pet him or get too close, but he does need to be taken in and vaccinated etc., so we are trying to get to know him better. He's getting a little more relaxed, and doesn't run off unless you actually move towards him. Sometimes he'll even come up on the porch until you look right at him or move suddenly, then he runs off and dives down into the storm drain across the street. That freaks me out a little for some reason, but all the cats do it from time to time. They don't seem to come to any harm. But really, what's down there? When I shine a flashlight in there it looks like a big deep drop-off, but they seem to get back out pretty easily. How do they do it?

Cats are pretty amazing.