Thursday, December 6, 2012

The cat came back... or at least continues to show up

We have three indoor cats, all spayed females.  Two of them occasionally flirt with the outdoors... if it's warm enough, dry enough, and calm enough, and there are people present.  The third one just hisses at the world from the doorway now and then.  Now that we have out-buildings, barn cats are sounding pretty good.  And as luck would have it, our first one seems to have found us.

On our second to last trip down here we had a dusty yellow cat show up outside.  At first, all we did was hear it.  He/she/it is nothing if not very vocal.  But also very leery.  And hard to spot against the winter-tan grass, which is probably why the coyotes haven't gotten hold of (used generically) him.
 

Most of the time at first all we'd see would be a blur heading very fast in the other direction trailing muttery yowls. 


No idea if he was a drop off, or if he just roamed down from a neighbor's placeIt would be a bit of a hike for short legs, but doable. In any case, he's obviously no stranger to being fed by people.  He certainly knows how to holler for his supper!  Luckily, since the cats came down that trip I at least had cat food I could put out along with a big bowl of water.  We definitely don't need another indoor cat, although that doesn't seem to be a danger.  But I was hopeful I could at least convince him to hang around and deter the rodent-size wildlife outside. 

So far so good.  He's getting a bit braver about staying in sight when we're outside, and yesterday when I went out to fill his dish he only ran off about ten feet before he flopped over sideways and rolled around in the dirt. Since he seems to be staying around I picked up some "outdoor" cat food so that he's not getting the expensive stuff we get thanks to one of the indoor ladies' sensitive stomach.  He's spending nights in the garage - previous residents cut a gap in the door so that the cats could go in and out, and after I say him coming out of there mornings, I fixed him a spot to curl up. We'll give him another week or so to get settled, then see if we can't live trap him and get him in for shots, etc.

In other news, still no internet - computer time and showers are still courtesy of our my in-laws, bless them - but we did get the hot water heater (which is worth a post of its own, let me tell you) hooked up tonight, and the phone is working.  Progress.

I managed a short ride on Sunny bareback the other night, but no substantial pony-time since the Great Escape.  Sigh...

4 comments:

Kellie said...

Cute cat.

Barn Cats.

Sounds good in theory to have them - take care of all those pesky varmets that hang around, but let me tell you that once you have one, they will call in all their friends then mate and all the sudden you've got like 40 cats!

Trust me, I know this from excperience. You never know enough people to give them all away too, ads in the paper, bullitens up at the store/post office. It's a never ending cat call. lol

For a few years there we only had the one male cat, but a mama cat showed up and had kittens in the barn last spring, then my daughters cat had kittens. Now we are up to seven cats. EEK! Still looking for homes for three of them. Plus that stray.. lol

Fort Western Stores said...

I have always loved having cats around the home, in and out. Glad to see you want to live trap for shots, and possibly spay/neuter.

Melissa Lynn D said...

Don't underestimate how far a cat can travel. When I got married, I took my favorite cat from my parents' place to live with me. After a couple days, he disappeared, and I figured a coyote or something got him. About a week later, he showed back up at my parents' farm, five miles away!

SunnySD said...

Kellie, you'll be pleased to know that the -single- cat has already turned into two. Another yellow cat showed up on Friday.

Definitely will be live-trapping for shots & spay/neuter - I know it ends up being expensive, but so does feeding them all when the multiply exponentially. And I kind of like having at least a few small birds around.

I've heard some amazing stories about animals finding their way home or back to a former home. I don't think these guys ever lived here, since it's been about 12 years since anyone has, so I'm glad they found us! But in light of your story, Melissa, I'm glad our three are primarily indoor cats (especially when it's cold) and won't have the option of heading back to SD!