A kitten showed up on a family's doorstep for food. After roaming the neighborhood all her life, she decided it was time for a change.
Four little kittens appeared outside Ariel Heath's home a few months ago. They were drinking water from a dog bowl without a cat mother in sight. "They heard us and ran back off the property behind our fence and into some brush," Ariel told Love Meow.
She asked her neighbors about the kittens but no one had seen them or knew anything about them. She began leaving food out, hoping they would return.
"I never saw them eat but the food was always gone within half an hour."
A few days later, the family heard meowing coming from their backdoor. It was the runt of the litter, who came for food all by herself. "She was still quite skittish and ran back if you moved too quickly."
Ariel placed the food by the fence and sat in the yard to wait for the kitten. "I would meow and she would come slowly, sneaking under the fence to eat. She was alone now, and her siblings were nowhere to be seen."
"After awhile she would come in my yard and eat the food near me as long as I was still. It was a long process as she was pretty wild."
The kitten visited their yard several times a day for food and started moving to the window to peek in and let the family know that she had arrived.
"Eventually, she trusted me enough to eat right from my hand and let me pet her."
It was then they knew the kitten had accepted them, and they made her a permanent part of their family.
"We named our kitten Billy not knowing she was a young lady. I took her to the vet. She was a very healthy girl for being outdoors her whole life. We got her spayed, vaccinated and dewormed so she wouldn't be repeating the cycle around the neighborhood."
The sweet kitten quickly bonded with Ariel's son and would play with him when they were out in the yard together.
She would wait by the door and greet him as he walked home from school every day.
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At first, Billy didn't feel comfortable staying indoors, but their rescued dog took her under her wing and offered to be her cuddle buddy.
"She had won over our dog and the two of them began having cuddle sessions of their own," Ariel told Love Meow.
Billy learned to enjoy living inside the house, started using the litter boxes and even grew to love snuggles and lap time with her humans.
"Despite their differences, they wait together for their human to walk home from school."
"She came right to our backdoor, demanding more chicken. She's an inside spoiled girl now."
The family never expected getting a cat, let alone being chosen by a little stray kitten.
"She is the cat we didn't know we needed," Ariel said.
Watch video: stray kitty then and now.
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