How We Got a Mel, Part 2 (For Real This Time ;) )

The short version:
We found him outside and took him home.
I hope that satisfies everyone's curiosity!

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Okay, okay, I'll tell the long version for those that are interested.

One day we were walking home from picking Zusha up, and saw a black and white little kitty sitting on someone's doorstep. He wasn't running away when we approached him (my boys always like to come up close to animals) and he even let the boys pet him!
Then I noticed that he had a collar. Interesting.
At that point, a man was coming up to the house on which stoop the cat was on. He said, "Oh, not that cat again. He went into our house before!"
He was hesitating to go inside because he knew the cat would run in when he opened the door. I offered to hold the cat while he goes in.

I took a look at the collar to see if I can find some info, but it was a flea collar. I was holding him, trying to decide what to do. He was probably lost, so I decided to take him home and look for his owner.

I asked Gedalya to carry the kitten because I had to push the carriage. We got upstairs and Gedalya put him down. Zusha started screaming that the cat will get lost, fall down the stairs and other horrible things.
I told him not to worry. The cat was running around our apartment and jumped up on a chair. Again Zusha got scared that he will fall off and I better catch him right NOW!
(later I realized that his fears were based on his experience with our hamster, whom we cannot leave on a high surface or on the floor because he will fall off, run away, and get lost.

I saw my downstairs neighbor on my way out to bring out the garbage or something and she warned me to keep the door closed because there is a cat that keeps going into people's homes... he went into hers and a couple of the neighbors' already!
"Is he black and white?"
"Yes! Did you see him?"
"Yeah..."


Hillel came home that evening and the cat came up to the staircase to watch him come up. His reaction upon seeing the cat? He petted him. And continued up. That's what kind of family we have. And that's the scenario I tell over when people ask me, "And your husband lets?? He doesn't mind?"

Over the next few days I tried finding the owner online... Craigslist... I looked for "missing cat" posters outside. Nothing. In the meantime I needed cat supplies so I made an order from Petco. A bed, a litterbox, collar with our phone number, litter, food... all the good stuff.

We have a cat man on our block. He's some sort of hermit dude, and he feed stray cats in his driveway, and we thought he might know something about this cat.
Yeah, he's a hermit. He didn't answer the door, and we tried several times. We did notice other cats in the driveway that seem to be the same age as our cat, but we can't figure out the mystery of the collar. Did the hermit dude put it on? Why would he do it to him and not the other cats?

Well, there was nothing to do but keep him at this point. So that's our story!