The cat came back... or at least continues to show up

We have three indoor cats, all spayed females.  Two of them occasionally flirt with the outdoors... if it's warm enough, dry enough, and calm enough, and there are people present.  The third one just hisses at the world from the doorway now and then.  Now that we have out-buildings, barn cats are sounding pretty good.  And as luck would have it, our first one seems to have found us.

On our second to last trip down here we had a dusty yellow cat show up outside.  At first, all we did was hear it.  He/she/it is nothing if not very vocal.  But also very leery.  And hard to spot against the winter-tan grass, which is probably why the coyotes haven't gotten hold of (used generically) him.
 

Most of the time at first all we'd see would be a blur heading very fast in the other direction trailing muttery yowls. 

No idea if he was a drop off, or if he just roamed down from a neighbor's place.  It would be a bit of a hike for short legs, but doable. In any case, he's obviously no stranger to being fed by people.  He certainly knows how to holler for his supper!  Luckily, since the cats came down that trip I at least had cat food I could put out along with a big bowl of water.  We definitely don't need another indoor cat, although that doesn't seem to be a danger.  But I was hopeful I could at least convince him to hang around and deter the rodent-size wildlife outside. 

So far so good.  He's getting a bit braver about staying in sight when we're outside, and yesterday when I went out to fill his dish he only ran off about ten feet before he flopped over sideways and rolled around in the dirt. Since he seems to be staying around I picked up some "outdoor" cat food so that he's not getting the expensive stuff we get thanks to one of the indoor ladies' sensitive stomach.  He's spending nights in the garage - previous residents cut a gap in the door so that the cats could go in and out, and after I say him coming out of there mornings, I fixed him a spot to curl up. We'll give him another week or so to get settled, then see if we can't live trap him and get him in for shots, etc.

In other news, still no internet - computer time and showers are still courtesy of our my in-laws, bless them - but we did get the hot water heater (which is worth a post of its own, let me tell you) hooked up tonight, and the phone is working.  Progress.

I managed a short ride on Sunny bareback the other night, but no substantial pony-time since the Great Escape.  Sigh...