On a side note... why do people dump animals?!?! I have no words for the depths of hell these people should endure. I'm not sure the feral kitten Boots is a dumpee, but there have been others (one desperate lonely recently pregnant wild dog springs to mind) and every time I see a poor animal so close to the highway I shudder. I don't particularly enjoy peeling them off the highway, nor do I like running over their corpses every day if I don't peel them off the road. People: (and I know my blog reading audience probably doesn't contribute to this epidemic) animals do not survive in the wild. Instead they become road kill. Or starve to death.
Emma the cat, however, was not a dumpee, at least on our property. As my husband said in his blog "We picked up a new cat from the Human(sic) Society (which involved having a retina scan, providing a family tree dating back to when my great, great, great (you get the picture) Grandpa Bobglegbhabob crawled out of the primordial ooze...".
Which in a nutshell means they made us jump through all sorts of hoops to adopt Emma. However, she is a total sweetie and immediately took to our dog Kiley and within minutes of sniffing around our house was comfortably lazing on my lap. As Bob also mentioned, she is overweight and is having trouble with the diet I've placed her on. If we go anywhere near the kitchen she gets up on her food area and literally howls for food. I think she got so big by eating the other cat's food while in the shelter. She is also a very messy pooer. I've literally found kitty litter on my ceiling. It's amazing. She is the Jackson Polluck of poo boxes.
Not one to forget my deceased animals so quickly, we got Emma to scare the mice that have been hovering around our house. I suppose it's to be expected in an old home, but I'm really not a fan. As soon as Pretty Lady had been dead for 2 weeks the mice were back. We knew we needed a cat. Several days after Emma's arrival we found a mouse trapped in our kitchen sink. I quickly picked up Emma and stuck her on the counter and backed away, to avoid the impending bloodbath. Instead she looked quizzically at the mouse, grabbed it by it's tail, and proceeded to bat at it for the next 20 minutes on the ground. Finally I took pity on the mouse (who had been playing possum for most of this time) and stuck it under a cup and moved him far far away from our house. We've not seen any mice since, hopefully Emma's poo box masterpieces are enough of a scent explosion to scare them off.
The feral kitten Boots was sitting in front of our house around last Thursday afternoon. I attempted to catch her (again, we live by a busy highway not 20 feet away from our house and one wrong move would send any animal into the hungry jaws of death) by using food and clever stalking with the boys but she escaped into our back woods. The next day she was back and I fed her again, but this time did not attempt to catch her. She's not a particularly angry cat, she just keeps her distance. When you remain 6 feet or more away from her she just ignores you happily. When you encroach upon her boundaries she simply glides that distance away from you again. Yesterday it was rainy and cold and she appeared by our sliding door hungry and wet. Crying in her kitten voice for more food. It was pitiful. I put a bowl of food just inside our house and snuck around back as she was eating and closed the screen door. Trapped cat! After discovering her predicament she eventually made her way into the bathroom where it appears she has not moved. I left her enclosed (as to avoid being bothered by Kiley) with some food, milk, a litter box and a towel to curl up on. I did attempt to handle her last evening, wearing a pair of Bob's glass proof gloves, but the hissing and spitting (and a tiny scratch to my hand) warned me not to try to tempt fate further. I must say the glare on that cats face every time I look at her is one that would send me straight to my doom, if she had any such power.
I really don't know what to do with her now. If she remains unfriendly she will have to be an outdoor cat. I hope she is young enough to become people friendly. My plan is to bribe her with some tuna this afternoon and see if she will eat out of my hand. I doubt it will be today though. Anybody want a little black kitten with white feet?
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