She steps out of the shadows of the oleander bushes after I feed the barn cat. She is just a slip of a cat with a demanding voice. Her coat is chocolate brown laced with tans and white. Her tail is chocolate with a black tip and her rear legs are tan while her front legs are dark brown. She is skinny but quite a striking cat and under other circumstances, she would be a beauty. I do see some Siamese in her.
She starts immediately. I have fed the cats in food alley and now it is her turn. Even at her young age, she is devoid of teeth (probably due to either neglect or poor nutrition when she was a kitten). Her hunger overcomes her shyness and she demands that it is her turn to be fed. She gets canned food, as dry food doesn’t work for her. The trick is to feed her in the shed and not have the others come and rob her of her food.
I slip into the shed and turn on the light- she is right behind me going through the cat door. She’s been with us now for a week and no longer spooks when I bend over to leave her canned food. Always a lady, she waits until her plate is full then moves in to eat it all.
I wonder where they come from? Is my living under the radar here not working anymore and people are just dumping their cats on us? You can’t see our acreage or even our barn from the road- yet cats seem to appear out of the middle of nowhere at times.
I talk to her softly as I prepare a hay bed for her. It is going to drop down in temperature tonight again and without much fatty tissue she doesn’t stand much of a chance of staying warm. As I talk to her, I hope she doesn’t think I talk funny. The blisters in my mouth have bloomed into large ulcers. I have a greater understanding now of cats with stomatitis and rodent ulcers and as mentioned before, a greater respect.
This weekend, we are going to make some bigger feral feeders for the property. These will be coon and possum proof and give the cats a wider area to eat from therefore stopping the frequent food fights that happen.
She was only here with us for two days before she started “training” me. Her demands met, she slips behind the stack of exotic wood and finds her hay bed and settles in for the night. I think she has decided to stay~ I better stock up on more canned cat food! Thankfully, Safeway is having a sale-10 cans for $5.00. I need to get to town before they close.
So crazy, all these cats now. Maybe, somehow the word has spread in the area. “Hey guys, there’s food here and best of all no one bothers you! So follow me—” And so they come-
I am “owned” by a Burmese and know just how demanding the Siamese part of her is, however I am in awe of her every day. How these creatures can learn to trust and love, makes all of it worth it.
Many thanks to you for all of your devotion to these cats.
Praying you feel better soon.
If they are indeed possum & raccoon proof, we’ll take at least one.
Our Dad feeds some strays/ferals living in the yard, and about half the food goes down raccoon throats.
I’llpost the link to my article and you can build one. 🙂 I will test it out first- what I found with the coons is if you don’t provide water at night- they don’t raid the food bowls as often. 🙂
I’ll be very excited when you share the link, too, since the raccoons and ‘possums visit us every night. We have tried all kinds of tricks, but haven’t hit on any solution to the problem of feeding a county full of varmints.
We’ve given away 37 cats and kittens in the past few years and I think the word has spread that we take in abandoned kitties. That might explain the last few who have shown up on our deck — three barely-weaned kittens and a couple of “teenagers.” So far we have placed one of the kittens (yesterday) and the teenager orange tabby female today. So now we’re down to two tiny tuxedo male kitties and one black “teenager.” It’s very quiet tonight with the black teenager at the vet’s to be neutered tomorrow. The little kitties have searched the house for their tiny sister and their larger “auntie” and seem lost without them….
Hope you get to feeling better soon.
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