He looks ancient this black boy. One would think in seeing him that he could barely move, but now when I go out to the enclosure he no longer hides. I have to watch him carefully because his strikes are quick and precise. Even while dishing out food for Matilda, Sawyer and Blake, Skeets will strike out at the hand that feeds everyone.
His tail is missing a lot of hair and his back legs are also hairless. I so want to just scoop him up and get him to the vet but as most of my fingers now sport Garfield Bandaids- it is prudent to wait a bit until he trusts me. I suspect his aggression is born of pain and nothing else but he leaves traps alone after being forced to spend over three weeks inside of one while Karen vacillated between surrendering him to me or keeping him herself. At least, he is neutered.
I am hoping by the end of next week, I will be able to capture him and get him in to be seen. Time will tell-
Three weeks in a trap? Yipe! Poor Skeets.
Maybe in time he will figure out you are not hurting the rest of his group, and he will relax and trust you a bit.
I feel sorry for the ancient strays and loners than I do for the youngsters. The oldsters are slow and aching, and should have homes to age in gracefully and safely. Skeets needs a good home for his last days.
So heartbreaking. One thing I read about cats that strike out when you are feeding them is that they are not really trying to hurt. Instead, in their world they don’t have a concept that someone would willingly feed them. In their world they have to be cunning and steal and run to survive. So the strike is to make the person drop the food so that he can steal it and run. Just heartbreaking. I have also seen it in cats that are just impatient. Same idea, they want me to drop the food so they can steal it. It makes it difficult when I am doing training with cats that do that. But the ones that are feral or have been abused – those are the ones that break my heart.
I hope he learns soon that he does not have to steal the food anymore.