I continue to feed the stray cat, have not missed a day. I put the food out a bit before dusk as it comes around after dark, usually around
8-9 pm, I only know because my cat Lulu runs from window to window looking out. I have seen the cat maybe 3 times because it was looking
in the window. So it mostly gets kibbles but twice a week wet food, and fresh water daily. I put it by the Rubbermaid shelter that has straw
in it we made, no signs that looks the cat has ever gone inside. Anyway, everyday the food bowl is empty so I assume the cat is getting it.
Maybe next winter if it is still around it will want to come in, maybe since it is getting to be outside weather we might encounter each other and
form a friendship and trust.

Love what you're all doing for feral or abandoned cats. We feed a constantly fluctuating colony of ferals in France and it's lovely to know that all around the world there are people who care.

A little tale of a feral cat in Cambridge, England: I'm a don (academic) at Jesus College, Cambridge. Years ago a pitiful black and white feral cat took up residence in the college grounds and we fed him for several years until it became clear that he had become ill. At that point I borrowed a cat trap from the local cat sanctuary, who took him in and organised for him to receive veterinary treatment (we paid the bills). They called him 'Jesus' because that was where he came from. Once he recovered they asked us to take him back on the grounds that he was old, untameable, and would be happiest in the place he knew as his home. So he came back to college, and the name he had been given by the cat sanctuary stuck.
One day I wandered into the Porters' Lodge and asked, 'Has anyone seen Jesus this morning?' The porters didn't bat an eye, just collectively answered that no, none of them had seen Jesus since the day before. It wasn't until I turned to leave the lodge that I saw the reaction of a group of tourists, who didn't know whether to run away on the assumption that we were all crazy, or to stay in the hope of seeing a modern miracle...

I love that story about Jesus kitty, Mika!

freedombel said:I continue to feed the stray cat, have not missed a day. I put the food out a bit before dusk as it comes around after dark, usually around
8-9 pm, I only know because my cat Lulu runs from window to window looking out. I have seen the cat maybe 3 times because it was looking
in the window. So it mostly gets kibbles but twice a week wet food, and fresh water daily. I put it by the Rubbermaid shelter that has straw
in it we made, no signs that looks the cat has ever gone inside. Anyway, everyday the food bowl is empty so I assume the cat is getting it.
Maybe next winter if it is still around it will want to come in, maybe since it is getting to be outside weather we might encounter each other and
form a friendship and trust.

Try tuna, salmon, anchovies, any fish without bones will lure the cat where you want.

Mika, you have given me...honestly..my only chuckle today. Thank You!

Thanks, Ursula. Sherry - I wish you a future of not just chuckles, but belly laughs every day and and !

Oh, yes...we all need that! Honest chuckles are sometimes hard to come by.

I am now down to one cat.....4 made the move North with us and at my age, think I will take on no more animals, but I do have the company of my neighbor's cats. She has 10 who were rescued when 30 were abandoned on one property and they spend a lot of time here.

Where we lived previously for the last 30-some years, we were overrun with coyotes and any cats who showed up had to be brought indoors immediately or risk being 'goners'...so we had 7 there...

I learned a long time ago that cats don't belong to people, it's rather the other way around so that humans belong to cats. So it's the cats who choose where they're going to live. And for so many of them to elect to live with you, or to visit you from your neighbours, says a lot!

You're absolutely right...and we should feel honored.

Well, they don't always chose to move in with us, but it's always their choice whether they love us and trust us!

Sometimes you know when they really want to move in....I've had two cats who literally climbed the screen to get in.....

I had one (Geronimo) who screwed up his courage to come through the cat flap, but was still so scared that he wouldn't let me touch him for three months. By the end of his life twelve years later he was a lap-loving sweetheart. And even if you choose them initially, if they don't like you they'll wander off and find someone they prefer.
The exception in my experience is the feral cats we feed in France - I'm sure they come because the food is there, they don't want real human contact.

Zuzu has always rescued cats...and I believe she stated at one time that she had one who was afraid to come out of the bedroom...stayed in there for years, was it 8-9 years, zu?

When we were remodeling our house some years ago, I was sleeping in a motorhome with two cats and one newbie climbed the screen on the window to get in....small black cat, huge bushy tail, tried cimbing through the screen, so I let him in. Well, I already had two cats in there with me, fortunately females or it could have been worse, and they promptly launched into a cat fight on top of my head. All I could do was grab the newcomer and set him back outside, though I worried about it, with coyotes and all. He continued to try to get in so, I brought him in, fed him and shut him in the bathroom. It took a few weeks before they could work it out amongst themselves, but they did and he became my favorite cat of all time......Ziggy.

It was difficult with the cats and coyotes and a husband allergic to cats. They could not live outside and we had one cat in the house, 3 cats in one motorhome, 2 cats in another, and then another new one who lived outside in the daytime (at risk) and in the shop at night. Straight up 4 o'clock in the afternoon he would show up to go inside for the night. he could not be with the other cats because he fights with any and all cats. He also viciously attacked me for a couple of years and his continued existence was doubtful.

He is now our only cat...I say 'our' cat though he is truly my husband's cat by choice.

This is Kitsel and though he looks angelic, he is a thug.......

Love that Kitsel!!!

The cat you're talking about, Sherry, was my sweet Millie. She was four when she came to live here. Some children had locked her in a pool house when she was a tiny kitten and spent the next year and a half torturing her. One of the kids' mothers discovered what they had been doing and took the cat to the vet to be euthanized. He charged her for the euthanasia, but he worked on the kitty for the next 6 months, patching up her wounds and broken bones and bringing her back to health. She then lived with a foster family for two years, but they kept her in a cage in the garage the whole time because they had dogs.

When she came here, I tried to keep her in my office, but she bit me every time the phone rang, so I gave her a room of her own. I replaced the solid door with a glass door so she wouldn't feel isolated. She could watch the other cats, but she didn't have to engage with them. More than two years later, she came out of the room into the hall. This is a picture of Millie venturing out of her room for the first time.



She soon made friends with the other cats, especially Vanilla. I call this picture Milli-Vanilli.



She finally gained the courage to go outside when she was 8 or 9. She loved the garden. She's hunting gophers in this photo.



Sadly, she died when she was only 10, but she had been on borrowed time for so long that it's a miracle she lived to that age.

Oh, zu...I didn't know Millie's back story. I don't think I can stand that................

It turned out happy, Sherry. She was always very affectionate with me (as long as no phones were ringing) and got lots more attention from me than the other cats did while she was living in her room. Plus, she finally got to be a playful and carefree kitten after she made friends with my cats and they all played together in the garden. I'm just so glad the vet gave her a second chance.

Okay, need to follow that up with happy thoughts.....

This is the story of J.W.
My friend has also moved North from SoCal, 2 years after we did, they've been here now since November. She's 150 miles North of us.....they inherited J.W. with the house they lived in in SoCal. He was 8 years old when they moved in...had always been an outside cat and the people who moved and left him had said they did not want to take him away from his "beloved hillside". Lucky he lived that long with the coyotes.

J.W. never wanted to come in. Our area there has been hit by wildfires and during the last big one, her husband said, "The cat's at the door wanting in." Toni said, "Well, let him in...."

So J.W. became an inside / outside cat. He is now 16-17 years old and when they moved he handled the move really well, watching the scenery, listening to music, etc.....

They've been up here 4 months now and only recently has J.W. been allowed to go in and out....but, here's the good part....for the first time in the 8 years since he's been with Toni, he climbed into her lap. He's done that 3 times now. I told her that I'm pretty sure that he's grateful that they did not leave him behind........

Okay...I know by now you are all dying to see J.W......
J.W.'s 'Floofy Feet'.....



J.W.......truckin' North in the U-Haul




J.W......





J.W.'s first day outside in Oregon....





Toni is an artist and this is one of her watercolors of J.W......





J.W. in his Sombrero.....

Zuzu, too bad your beautiful Millie had such a terrible life before finding you (great Vet!). I love 3 coloured kitty girls - always wanted to be owned by one.

Sherry, J.W. is not just a very handsome cat, but also very smart and looks great with his sombrero!

I'll pass the word to J.W, Ursula......he's quite accepting of admiration.