A little over a year ago a man noticed a stray cat kept running through his yard. Lex had never considered himself to be a “cat person”. Little did he know, though, that seeing this cat scramble across his yard was the beginning of a love story.

According to Lex, a neighbor had told him there was no shortage of free-roaming cats in the neighborhood, and that most people tended to just let them be.

That is exactly what Lex did until he noticed something about the cat that disturbed him.

The cat would hop onto Lex’s porch and once he got a good look at him, he noticed how skinny he looked. He was clearly not getting enough food as a stray, and Lex wanted to help him out. There was just one problem; the cat was terrified of him.

“He was absolutely terrified of me. I would leave out a can of tuna right on my deck because he looked hungry. He was still super afraid,” the compassionate “non-cat person” describes in an interview with The Dodo.

Even though the cat didn’t want to get close to him, Lex still wanted to make sure that he was at least getting enough to eat. So, he placed a small food and water dish outside of his patio door. That way, the cat would always have access to it if he needed it.

The cat began coming to Lex’s patio regularly, knowing he would get some tasty food and fresh water.

As the sweet, little, orange and white tabby would chow down on the food left out for him, Lex would sit and watch him on the other side of his glass door. He always tried to get near to him and let him know that he was there and that it was alright. The cat was still wary though.

“He would just eat out of his little food and water bowl outside of my house. And if he noticed me on the other side of the glass, he would run away,” he explains.

The cat still wouldn’t come near him, but Lex worried about him being out at night. Then, Lex came up with the most thoughtful idea. He built the cat a tiny little house of his own!

Lex handcrafted a cozy little box with a roof and door cutout for the cat.

He used old blankets for the insulation and when he left it out that first night, the cat crawled right into it and cozied up. The cat gave Lex the most loving look, then closed his eyes and went to sleep. For Lex, this changed everything.

“I remember looking out the glass and seeing him in his house. He was looking at me. He just kind of put his head down and just started sleeping. When he slept in the house, I though of it as a pivotal moment. As being part of the family,” he said.

Then, the moment finally came when the cat trusted Lex enough to come in the house.

When winter finally came, the cat, who Lex has named Cinnabon, decided he wanted to come into the house. Lex found him meowing at the sliding glass door, sitting there in the snow. Though it was clear he wanted in, he was also still very wary of the human who’d been feeding him.

So, Lex did what any animal lover would do. He bribed Cinnabon with tasty cat treats.

“I kept the slider glass open and I’m throwing treats at him…and he would eat them. He got close enough to me. It kind of went really fast. From him not being able to be petted to him being petted and them coming in the house was a pretty quick process once we reached that milestone,” Lex recalls.

Once Cinnabon went in the house, though, he was IN.

Lex decided to keep Cinnabon in the house for a while to get him acclimated to his surroundings. Thankfully, the cat took to having a house to roam right away. Before he knew it, Lex had an energetic and fun-loving kitty running around his house playing with the cat toys Lex bought for him.

Lex still likes to let Cinnabon outside to roam and play, which he loves to do. The best thing about letting him run free, sometimes for the better part of the day, is watching him return home all on his own.

Thanks to Lex’s compassion and persistence, this once stray cat now knows the joys of having a forever home with a loving human. To see Lex’s full interview with The Dodo, watch the video below. To stay up to date on all of his and Cinnabon’s adventures, you can follow them on their Instagram page.

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Source: The Dodo