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Anyone who have been longtime readers of this column, or simply have nothing better to do for 15 minutes on a Saturday, you know how much affection I have for cats.

Some would even argue that I’ve talked about Buster and Nemi far too much, which is fair, though to also be fair I haven’t talked about them for quite awhile.

The affection I have for cats goes back a long ways into my childhood when our house most of the time boasted at least one cat at any given time or as many as four. Personalities of the these companions were as varied as those found in humans. Some have been playful and energetic, others have been calm and satisfied to sleep all day.

Still others enjoy clawing at the carpet on the stairs with the very real goal of waking us up when they thought we should be up.

Good work, Buster.

Throughout those many, many years, more than a few cats have come to us by adoptions, meaning they adopt us. Many might remember that Nemi walked right up and demanded to be taken home.

Skinny, hungry and desperate she quickly has grown to a “healthy” sort of round, content to lounge in any number of places she’s more or less claimed throughout her time with us.

Recently, however, we haven’t had much cause to worry about these kinds of things — until about a year and a half ago when we first spied a very pretty white and gray cat walking by the house.

We thought it might not be an issue because the cat really wanted absolutely nothing to do with us, high-tailing it before I could even get that close. It would be another few months before the cat showed up again, and like the first time took off as soon as I got close.

Last winter, we only saw the cat a few times, with the only other clues being paw prints in the snow that followed a very specific path each time, including walking in front of the house, around the west side and between a neighbor’s fence and our garage.

Every time it got cold we worried about the cat, but it kept coming around so it was finding a place somewhere to hold up.

This summer, however, the cat began making more routine trips to our house, finding it a number of times on our front step enjoying the sun. I couldn’t be sure, but it was starting to feel like I was getting closer, though it still took off when it felt I was getting too close.

Visits by the cat began to increase and I started wondering if home had become either our bush or our other neighbor’s deck. Early this school year, a friend who is on the staff of IJ Intermediate School texted me to tell me one of my cats had gotten out. I panicked briefly until I noticed both of mine were in the house and busy being lazy. Looking out our big picture window I saw the culprit sitting serenely on the steps, seemingly not to care one bit almost as if he understood there was a house between it and me.

Since then, it has gotten to be a daily thing for the cat to visit the house at various points during the day. Oh wait, did I say cat? I mean cats, because we discovered there are now two cats visiting, both with similar tails and color schemes, except the newer one is a darker gray, which makes me wonder if they are siblings.

I’m well aware of how things are likely to go, because throughout time, my family has at various points fallen into familiar patterns of harboring animals until they end up in the house.

Both cats feel fairly comfortable hanging out on the front step, even to the point where we can sit next to the door with it closed and they don’t move, which if I’m to be honest is something of a hint that we’ve turned the corner already in doing something.

The other thing that is providing a hint to this corner-turning is that we’ve now started feeding it, and each morning the bowl is found empty.

Again, familiar as the cats are starting to let us get a little closer. Not much, but it is noticeable.

However, there is one thing stopping us from fully committing to bringing them inside — Buster and Nemi.

On the best of days, Buster and Nemi largely ignore each other. But Buster isn’t above picking on his adopted sister causing all sorts of shenanigans and chaos as they tear through the house — one thinking they are playing and the other thoroughly hating Buster.

But, if there is one thing that unites them is our favorite strays. Each time our two brave defenders realize the cats are on the step, they take up defensive stances at the front door as they strike intimidating stances against the newcomer — who couldn’t care less. Which is funny considering that if we were to try and bring them in, Nemi would hide leaving Buster alone to defend the house, the big toughy that he is.

It’s highly unlikely that we’ll be bringing any more strays into the house just because in a house our size, four is probably a bit much and I doubt they will want to come in anyway, no matter how used to us they get.

Famous last words.