Over a year ago, two cats turned up in our yard – one mostly Siamese and the other looked to be part skunk – long hair, mostly black, with white accents. We called one “Blue” for her eyes and the other one “Wild Eyes” because she seemed to never blink, just looked alarmed. Wild Eyes is feral, Blue seems to be a stray or abandoned after living in a home. My first words to Mary Anne were “Whatever you do, do not feed them. We’ll never get rid of them.” So they’d stop by and Blue would let us pet her while Wild Eyes looked on from a distance. This went on for a number of months.
One day, we went out on the deck and Blue ran up and cried and meowed without stopping. Wild Eyes paced back and forth.
“Ada! We have to feed them. They seem to be starving.”
“OK!”
I knew that was the end of life as I knew it.
We found a can of tuna fish and let them share it. The next day, we went out and bought a bag of dry cat food. Yes, from then on, we’ve been feeding them every day – morning and night. Which was OK until one day Blue pushed her way in through the kitchen/side door.
I’m allergic to cats (and dogs, and lots of things) but only since I turned 40. I had two cats at the time- Tux and Clio – and had to send them off to live in retirement in Florida with my mother (AKA Cat Lady) and she pampered them until they were both over 20 years old. When they died, they were buried in the back yard with all the other cats. How many? I don’t know. Maybe more than 10, 15, 20?
Living Room Loveseat BC (before cat)
Love seat AC (after cat) 
So these days I wake up in the night and my eyelids are sealed shut, I have to rub my eyes so that I can open them. They itch a lot of the time. I do take Zyrtec but I was already doing that with no cat at all. Wild Eyes usually comes for breakfast and dinner and we let Blue out so she’ll go play with her. If we want Blue, we call her by whistling Happy Birthday to You (not sure how we figured that one out). Strangely, she never jumps up on the kitchen counters or up on tables. She only has free reign of the kitchen, dining area, and living room. Despite that, I’ve started feeling like I’m the one living in her house not vice versa. Yes, I love that cat.