A subtle progression?

It started with a visit to the birdtable, moved to sleeping in the Poultry Palace and progressed to the outside Pump House. Snow came but the stranger stayed outside. Gradually though it ventured indoors for short spells. Then, as suddenly as it arrrived it disappeared.
"Gone!" we thought. Didn't dare miss it; it hadn't been here long enough for that. Then one evening it was back.
And stayed. Came indoors more frequently and gradually moved from scullery to kitchen to snug to... spare bedroom. Probably thought that since nobody else slept there she might as well.
As a precaution we took her to the vet. Found out that she would soon have had kittens. Little rascal. That's why she was behaving strangely before she left for a few days.  Found herself a comfy home then sneaked off to find her mate! Not stupid then.
Pilot and Gunner accepted her without question. She probably told them to. Wasn't long before she was telling us what she wanted. Couldn't call her quiet cat by any stretch. Soon she was not only coming for walks with the dogs in the morning - scared me sometimes thinking we might lose her in the long grass or the wheatfields (she knows her way around though) - but doing the evening rounds with us too whilst impatiently demanding that we hurry up and go up the road for our last-thing walk! When the first mouse was brought in we thought it charming.... now it's a matter of: "Now what's she got?" and I haven't caught as many in the house in the previous 11 years as I have in the one since she arrived.
A year on I realise that quite a few little routines and habits now revolve around her: We leave the porch window open all the time so she can come and go (will that change when it gets really cold I wonder?): I feed her breakfast while making morning tea (none of the others get that): I look for her now when doing the morning feeds (I'd never find Puddy Cat attending to the daily chores!) and talk to her during evening stables: our nightly walk up the drive is punctuated by Words with Waifa; before bed I check if she's with the dogs or on 'her' bed upstairs. We know when her Miaow means "Out" or "In", "Food" or just "Hello"; she's not a cat to pick up and cuddle but she purrs like a lioness, demonstrating how much she appreciates contact with other creatures - human or canine.... and she seems determined that she's here to stay.
Puddy Cat might agree to differ but the skinny, shy creature that arrived last November has made a subtle progression into a place which would be empty and sad without her.