The Unseen That Stalks In The Night

The Vocal Team's Steal From Yourself Challenge has motivated me to create a story, from "The Night Stalker", that is on another platform. I am challenged to tell the tale without rewriting the original article and I'll succeed. The line I borrowed is "The unseen that stalks in darkness."

This is a story about something I have not seen that occasionally shows up in my backyard but it is not paranormal in nature. The original story focused on the supernatural and paranormal that we may not be aware of.

This article is practical, about reality, the animal kingdom and human actions. The previous story was written in a way to leave much to suggestion and the imagination. This time I am dealing with facts in real-time.

I unofficially adopted neighborhood stray cats that at one point totaled 12. There were more than 20 that roamed the neighborhood initially. Some disappeared; two were hit by cars, and eight from two litters were spayed and neutered and given rabies shots for free by a local organization.

My grandchildren named them and fed them when they came over. We were down to five when a grown black cat with golden eyes showed up in February in ice, snow, and four-degree weather.

Now there are six, and three of them run from me, but always eat the food provided by the local cat agency. Golden and two Tuxedo cats are leery but lately come a bit closer as if testing the waters. The calico and two Turkish Vans are friendly and love to be petted.

I have read online that you should not leave food and water out at night because it will invite stray critters. When my ring-cam was working, I saw raccoons, possums, groundhogs, shunks, and deer in my yard late at night.

Since the cats remained unscathed and unharmed, I kept leaving water for them. I began noticing that even a full bowl would be empty the next morning. This only happened a few times a week, but I wondered which night stalker was so thirsty.

After it rained, even the cats did not drink from the water dish so I realized they must be drinking elsewhere. A few years ago, there were reports of bears about a half mile away to the East and West of my home, and I often wondered if any of them came through the yard.

I began noticing that any leftover food from the cats was gone the next morning and knew some non-feline animal was eating it. The six cats will sometimes leave food on the large crate top I used to feed them, and the next morning I would have to discard it.

When I began seeing an empty water bowl and the crate top clean, I wondered what was devouring everything. I have gone outside between midnight and 4 am and have not seen any animals.

I sometimes take early morning walks around 5 or 6 am while it is still dark, but hae only seen a few of the cats stirring. I began throwing out rice and noodles into the cat food to see what happened.

The cats sniffed these foods but walked away. Always the next morning the food and water was gone. My attitude is that as long as the hungry creatures only stalk after hours, there is no harm, no foul, because they deserve to eat as well.

If I begin to notice a hoard of unwanted creatures lurking, I will consider dumping the water bowl before sunset and throwing away leftover cat food. I know this is against the recommendations, but I kind of like the idea of something unknown lurking in the dark but hiding in the light of day.

They are doing me a favor by eating what remains. No aliens are coming down for a snack, no Bigfoot sneaking over from the nearby park and nature trail. I believe a raccoon or skunk may be finishing off the food and drinking the water but don't know for certain.

As long as the critter remains unseen in the dark and it is poses no threat to the cats or me, my attitude is live and let live.