Of Cats and Men

An interesting story has been developing here. Since it's changing I'll share it with everyone. Back when the fight against cancer was just beginning, and even before, there were some neighborhood cats who kept turning up in our yard. They liked to hang around in my bushy shrubs, apparently hunting squirrels and birds. When any of us would come out, they would rush into the bushes to hide or race back across the street.

it seemed obvious they were neighbor cats who liked the available hunting grounds once the dogs had moved to Maine.

Over a year ago, I noticed that an opening into the crawlspace under the house had lost it's screen. This led to squirrels moving in and causing problems. I blocked it off with a weight that I knew no squirrel could get through. Some months later I was surprised to see it been pushed aside. I couldn't see a squirrel being strong enough to do that. So I blocked it again and then later found it been moved away for the second time. Clearly no squirrels were living under the house so I wasn't sure what was going on.

Some months ago I realized that what it happened was that one of the cats was homeless. This wasn't a problem for it during the summer but the nights were starting to get cold. So it moved under my house. I didn't really mind. It was wild and instead of running across the street when it saw me, would begin running under the house. It wasn't causing any harm, and I don't have anymore squirrel problems. I put water out for it. But whenever It saw me it would race away as if it expected me to chase it down and attack.

As time went on, I got tired of all the dead birds turning up in the yard. Obviously it was a good hunter and was feeding itself. So I started putting out food for it in hopes that would protect the bird population. It seems to have worked. But the cat still acted as if I was a monster to be feared. Still, it stopped racing away at top speed and began merely hurrying away whenever it's saw me. About two months ago as it was hurrying away it stopped just before it disappeared looked at me and meowed. This was the first time it ever made eye contact, first time it ever reacted to me other than with fear.

With the weather turning cold I took an old box and cut open a door which was just large enough for him to enter comfortably, filled it with old T-shirts, and set it out under the house so he could sleep warm at night. With temperatures dropping to freezing that no longer seemed enough, so I wrapped it up in an old mattress pad. That should keep it quite comfortably warm once he's inside.

About a month ago I stepped out at night to check the temperature, looked up and saw the cat sitting in the sun in a huddle. It was about 60 feet away, And it surprised me by just staring at me. It didn't run away. Having checked the temperature, I just stepped back in the house and closed the door. After that he went back to hurrying away whenever he saw me.

Today was a rather big breakthrough. Instead of just giving him leftovers I actually bought some cat food. No, he is not my cat. But if I don't feed him he leaves dead birds around the yard. I stepped out the back door where I keep a bowl of water and food for him, He was poking at the empty bowl and ran around the side of the house. I called out to him and said I've got food for you, put a little of the new cat food in the bowl, rattled it, called him, and he stepped back around the corner the house, looked at me and made a friendly meowing at me.

I put the food down, stepped back in the house and he came up and began to eat as I watched him through the window. It was the first really good look I've had. It turns out he's much more a tawny cougar sort of color than the striped orange cat I thought it was from the glances I had caught before.

I'm not sure where any of this is going. I thought he would never be friendly but he acted as if he wasn't terribly afraid of me for the first time today. I still don't think of him as my cat but I would love to get him to the vet although he looks quite healthy.

If anything changes, I'll let you know.