It’s Not My Cat March 2023

 

It’s Not My Cat March 2023

 

Sister left me with cat food, and I promised to make sure the food and water on her brother’s porch would stay full.  Mama watched me do this, and stopped coming over to my house to eat.  It was like she was saying “All I have to do is wait, and everything will be brought to me.”  For a while, cat. Only for a while.

 

While all this was happening, I was attracting unwanted attention from the feral cats.  I made the firm decision that I would NOT be the Crazy Cat Lady, but they were so cute… They started bringing their pregnant friends over, but with so many, it was hard to only feed the ones I was trying to adopt.  I did know some of the more notorious stray cats, like Buddy, father of several generations of cats and the big orange striped tom that no one claimed, so I tried to keep them from eating all the food, but there was only so much I could do.

 

Sister and I started planning her next trapping trip to Colorado.  We weren’t sure when that would be, but the more trust I got from the cats, the more likely we would be to get them help. 

 

Sister had been coming to town for years, trapping cats when her brother was still there, getting help from Foothills Animal Shelter, and bringing them back at least fixed and vaccinated or maybe adopted out.  It’s a No Kill shelter that has the Working Whiskers program.  Cats that don’t want human friends have a shot at becoming barn cats.  The folks there are awesome.

 

One day, Mama came in long enough to verify that I had opened a can of wet food, then sat sitting on my porch.  She was waiting for Friend, a feral that was pregnant.  I originally thought this cat was Boo, but Boo got taken to the shelter already.  I had seen Mama interacting with Friend, and I was touched by how protective Mama was for her.  I had the wet food inside, and opened my door five or six times (it was still really cold out), but Mama wouldn’t come in without Friend.

 

 

Mama finally came back in!  I made progress!

 

 

I left the food and water near the door so the cats weren’t spooked too much to get it.  She started coming over from CCG’s house when I called her soon after!

 

 

Meet Squeaky.  He was one of CCG’s personal cats, but Sister hadn’t seen him around, so she didn’t mention him.  I kept talking to him, using his name, and he started to warm up to me.  He is the result of a faulty printer.  Running out of toner and squeaks!  Lol!

 

 

 

Apparently, Mama didn’t know this pregnant female, and ran her off.  I guess Mama was defending her grazing rights.  Mama came back in right after.  Progress, for sure!  Sister told me that Mama was one of her brothers’ original cats, but soon there were 14.  Then more…  The Cat Farm Curly called it.

 

 

I moved the food further into the house.  Mama still came in for it.  Got to shut the door for a little while with Mama inside.  It was cold!  But she didn’t like that, so I let her back out.

 

With all the food inside, Mama started to sneak past me into the house when I came out on the porch.  Every time I sneezed or talked to a neighbor though, she would streak past me and go back out.  Baby steps.  I set up a nest for cats in my storage room, just in case.

 

Around this time, Sister was talking to a realtor about selling her brother’s house.  I felt bad for the cats, as it was the only home some of them had ever known, but it had to go.  Liens and such.  Her brother wasn’t well before he passed.

 

Join me again for the next episode of “It’s Not My Cat!”