Last Saturday, Midnight gave me a little scare.
Midnight is the black cat that has been coming to my yard for food for over three years now. He’s the one that is missing his canine teeth and has an old eye injury.
On Saturday morning, Midnight was not in the driveway or yard waiting for breakfast.
Usually, when it’s warm out, Pork Chop, Charcoal, and Midnight are sitting on the driveway waiting for me. Or they will be staring in the door or windows looking for me.
Midnight is the most consistent of the three, with showing up for food in the mornings and evening treat time.
Even during the deck removal and construction of the new deck, Midnight never missed breakfast. The other two skip occasionally.
So, Where Was Midnight?
I checked the shed and all of the other shelters in the yard. He was not in any of them.
When it’s warm out and not raining, I don’t think they sleep in the shelters. So I wasn’t too concerned when I didn’t find them there.
Then I checked the street to make sure he hadn’t been run over by a car. I like to believe they he stays in my yard all the time. However, sometimes Ted sees him coming across the street late at night from wherever he goes (usually with Charcoal).
After Charcoal and Pork Chop had eaten the wet food, I decided to check the trail camera (affiliate link). Midnight was on the trail camera at 12:48 AM.
The camera is set to only look inside the food shelter. I’ve been thinking about upgrading to a video system. My brother has this one now for his yard (he doesn’t have outdoor cats but uses it for his dogs and maybe deliveries).
But it seems like it needs to be plugged into an outlet. We currently do not have an outlet near the food shelter right now. The outlet stopped working when the deck was replaced (and probably wasn’t safe anyhow which we learned when the electrician installed an outlet in the shed).
About an hour later, I went out to put the memory card back into the camera.
And there was Midnight! He was in the driveway, like his usual, and expecting a dish of wet food.
So maybe he had slept in, as my mom had suggested. We will never know for sure.
Not knowing where the outdoor cats are all the time is part of the extra worry that comes with caring for outdoor cats. I’m just glad he was okay!
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Heidi Bender is the writer and founder of the Joy of Cats. She enjoys sharing cat information and providing helpful cat tips. She considers herself a cat lady and currently cares for eight cats.