Cat Walk

Life presents some strange happenings at times, and yesterday I witnessed one of them.
I took the day off yesterday to work on my manuscript of "Amanda's Hope."  I got the editorial review from the publisher and am in the process of editing the entire book according to the review of the first 1700 words.  Reading the manuscript with an editorial eye is quite exhausting and time-consuming.  I wanted to get 100 pages done yesterday but managed to do only 60 in 7.5 hours of work.  I situated myself in our small office which is at the back of the house and wrapped on three sides by four sliding glass doors, which lend an outdoor feeling to the space.  With my laptop literally on my lap, I sat facing the birdfeeder suspended from a wire outside the west-facing sliding glass door in order to enjoy my feathered friends as I worked.
During the morning, before Bob left for work, we noticed a cat that didn't belong to us wandering through our back yard.  It was a rather large cat, striped gray with a white chest, white chin, and white legs.  Obviously not a feral cat, it slowly wandered around our yard and deck.  Not wanting my cats to get into a fight with it, I went outside thinking that it would run away at my approach.  But it didn't.  He sat down and looked at me and then came up to me and let me pet him.  He was well fed and clean and had an obvious scar across his nose from a previous fight.  I told him that it would be a good idea if he left, and he wandered off, following the stones that lined our grassy areas all the way to the side of our house.  I went back to the computer and to my work.
Later, about half an hour before noon, I heard the cat door flapping and quickly glanced up to see Delilah coming through the door.  Delilah is my female cat, grayish-brown tabby with a white chin and very long fur derived from her Maine Coon Cat ancestry.  With my quick glance to the cat door, which was located about eight feet from where I sat, I thought to myself, "I didn't know Delilah was outside," but didn't think anything more about it and resumed my editing.  Several minutes later, I heard the cat door again, and I glanced at it again and saw that Delilah was going outside, but something caught my gaze and held it.  It wasn't Delilah!  It wasn't even my cat!  It was the cat that had been wandering in the yard that morning.  I laughed so hard as that cat calmly exited through the cat door.  It was obvious that he knew how to use a cat door and had probably used it before. 
Stunned silly, I realized that Delilah hadn't come in earlier; she was laying in her usual place on a kitchen chair the whole time!  This other cat had simply come into our house through the cat door, wandered around unbeknownst to me, and gone back outside of his own accord.  After I got over my initial shock, I went outside onto the deck, where the visiting cat had settled in the sunshine.  Again, he allowed me to pet him (don't know if it's male or female).  I relayed to him that it probably wasn't a good idea for him to come into my house univited.  He doesn' come in for food because our cats are fed canned food twice a day; there's never dry cat food sitting in bowls.  I have no idea what possessed that cat to do such a thing yesterday.
This strange visit might explain why I've been awakened several times to the sound of the cat door being pushed open during the night when both cats have been on the bed with me.  It makes me wonder how many times this other cat has come and gone through our house without us knowing.  And since we're gone during the daytime, this could be occurring on a regular basis without our knowledge.  Our strange visitor didn't do any harm yesterday, but I'm concerned about him coming in and fighting with my cats while we're gone.  By the way, my cats were sleeping, one on a kitchen chair and the other on our bed, while this non-resident wandered through our house!
I had to call Bob after this happened yesterday; it was just too funny to me!  And the fact that I cast such a quick glance at the cat and didn't notice that it wasn't mine was even funnier!
This reminds me that unwelcome people or things can enter our lives without our permission.  Instead of looking intently at situations or people for what they really are, we cast quick glances only later to realize that we should have prevented such an intrusion.  Oftentimes people enter our lives and wreak havoc and then quietly leave.  We need to be mindful of what enters our lives, our hearts, and our homes.  We must keep guard over our literal doors andyour spiritual doors lest the enemy of our souls quietly and unobtrusively enters and does us harm.