A Kitten in the Kitchen

A few days ago, there was this small cat who came into our living area. It shocked me and I think that my reaction scared the cat away. Later that day, the cat was in the bushes meowing, but when I came over to check it out, the cat walked away again.

It turns out that the cat is not just a little cat, but seems to be a kitten! The next day I found that the cat had slept under the bus and started meowing as soon as it heard our voices. I figured it was probably hungry. What does one feed a cat if there is a lack of cat food? Milk! No milk. Yogurt seems similar so we laid out some for her. She had a little but started meowing again when I was opening bags for our breakfast (perhaps reminding her of dry cat food).

I tried some granola, which she ate a little of, some leftover rice and sambar from dinner the previous night. After much caution on all of our parts (cat included), we figured out that she doesn't meow while being petted. In fact, she is maybe the most affectionate cat I have ever encountered. She comes when called, she cries when we leave, and she'll crawl all over my lap for some cuddling. She must have been in someone else's home before because she is very familiar with human love.

The next morning I was sure that she was gone. I hadn't heard signs of her scrounging around the kitchen at night or growling at potential predators like I had the night before. She didn't meow when we first got up either. She was gone. My reaction showed that I had already become attached to this little cutie. But wait, there she is in a box sleeping with our books and beach towels! She must have been our the whole night before.

She is still with us. It sounds like this may be normal. Mike currently has a cat that he found as a kitten near his house. I'm a little worried about what to do with her though. We have finalized our plans to leave in 2 weeks and I am going to have a really hard time just leaving her there alone to fend for herself. What would happen to her? Should I take her to a shelter? Or try to give her to someone we know here? It's definitely going to be sad to see her go. I am already VERY attached to this little kitten that we found in our kitchen.