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He's the semi-feral we've been feeding without much thought the whole summer, he looks a world better than when we first saw him this summer, probably because he's been eating Blacky's food. He would sneak in through the garage to get at it.
We've seen him on and off the whole summer around here, sometimes every week, other times every few days. Once he was crouched down by the fence in the backyard like a statue, even though I was sitting about 10 feet away with the dog. So anyway, I figure the cat and Blacky get along well since there aren't any cat fights.
This last week we saw the cat twice, our garage doors are mostly closed this time of year and he doesn't seem willing or able to use the cat door (maybe he's slow, haha... even Blaze figured that thing out) the first time this week my father saw him sitting on our compost and went and brought out some kibble, he slid it right beside the cat without it running away. The cat at it all.
Then a few days ago my father found it again in our sun room (a glassed in room accessible from the steps leading into the backyard; this is one of Blacky's favourite spots) ... so my dad again got some food for it, he gave it 6 oz of wet food our cats won't touch and the cat ate it all immediately. The picture below was taken shortly before my dad put out the wet food, he'd slid some kibble right beside it on the chair and then thought about the wet food and got it as well, also putting it right beside the cat.
So last night my father again saw this cat. This time, it was because he'd closed the cat in the garage by accident. It was pouring rain all day and night so we left the cat in there. We got it some kibble, wet food, water, a litter box and a bed.
Overnight the cat ate most of the wet food and all of the kibble. That was a lot. This morning I found a really soft patty of poop in the litter box, I thought it was a clump of cat pee at first. What do you make of that? Could the cat have worms? Or maybe just have problems due to living on the street that may resolve shortly if fed a proper diet? On the bright side, it also did a pee in the litter box, which is more than I can say for Blaze most of the time.
The cat didn't sleep in the bed (large low to the ground cardboard box with pillow and blanket), so probably didn't have a nice night on the concrete floor. Eariler today it was hiding under some stuff but didn't do any growling. Later on in the day the cat made its home in a higher up window, it feels safe up there so even while we were making crazy racket in there cleaning the garage for the cat today it didn't run and hide, lowly growled very little, didn't have its eyes glued to our movements, and once I even saw it with its eyes shut. I checked on it a few minutes ago and it's in a weird little hard to reach corner growling at me, I guess I'd have to block that area off.
So anyway... today I bought it a heating pad. But I don't really know if I should continue with this or not, to what end? All winter? Or what... the cat probably won't even use the bed if I give it a heating pad.
I've thought about contacting the local shelter (they run a massive 700+ cat sanctuary) ... but I don't know if that's much of a life for a cat, and as its semi-feral, they probably won't have time to tame it.
Can't leave food out for it. Wildlife will eat it, and Blacky (seriously, she doesn't eat the kibble in the house but scarfs it down outside?!)...
Opinions?
So here's the picture of it (highly likely 'him') a few days ago in the sun room:
We've seen him on and off the whole summer around here, sometimes every week, other times every few days. Once he was crouched down by the fence in the backyard like a statue, even though I was sitting about 10 feet away with the dog. So anyway, I figure the cat and Blacky get along well since there aren't any cat fights.
This last week we saw the cat twice, our garage doors are mostly closed this time of year and he doesn't seem willing or able to use the cat door (maybe he's slow, haha... even Blaze figured that thing out) the first time this week my father saw him sitting on our compost and went and brought out some kibble, he slid it right beside the cat without it running away. The cat at it all.
Then a few days ago my father found it again in our sun room (a glassed in room accessible from the steps leading into the backyard; this is one of Blacky's favourite spots) ... so my dad again got some food for it, he gave it 6 oz of wet food our cats won't touch and the cat ate it all immediately. The picture below was taken shortly before my dad put out the wet food, he'd slid some kibble right beside it on the chair and then thought about the wet food and got it as well, also putting it right beside the cat.
So last night my father again saw this cat. This time, it was because he'd closed the cat in the garage by accident. It was pouring rain all day and night so we left the cat in there. We got it some kibble, wet food, water, a litter box and a bed.
Overnight the cat ate most of the wet food and all of the kibble. That was a lot. This morning I found a really soft patty of poop in the litter box, I thought it was a clump of cat pee at first. What do you make of that? Could the cat have worms? Or maybe just have problems due to living on the street that may resolve shortly if fed a proper diet? On the bright side, it also did a pee in the litter box, which is more than I can say for Blaze most of the time.
The cat didn't sleep in the bed (large low to the ground cardboard box with pillow and blanket), so probably didn't have a nice night on the concrete floor. Eariler today it was hiding under some stuff but didn't do any growling. Later on in the day the cat made its home in a higher up window, it feels safe up there so even while we were making crazy racket in there cleaning the garage for the cat today it didn't run and hide, lowly growled very little, didn't have its eyes glued to our movements, and once I even saw it with its eyes shut. I checked on it a few minutes ago and it's in a weird little hard to reach corner growling at me, I guess I'd have to block that area off.
So anyway... today I bought it a heating pad. But I don't really know if I should continue with this or not, to what end? All winter? Or what... the cat probably won't even use the bed if I give it a heating pad.
I've thought about contacting the local shelter (they run a massive 700+ cat sanctuary) ... but I don't know if that's much of a life for a cat, and as its semi-feral, they probably won't have time to tame it.
Can't leave food out for it. Wildlife will eat it, and Blacky (seriously, she doesn't eat the kibble in the house but scarfs it down outside?!)...
Opinions?
So here's the picture of it (highly likely 'him') a few days ago in the sun room:
