Bast help us, we have a new stray. A small, young dark tabby & white that has taken up residence in our yard. So desperately hungry, it was eating bird seed from the ground beneath the feeder. We haven’t been able to determine what sex it is, but for reasons to be explained, we’re rather sure it’s a female. So for now, the stray is a she.
She seems sweet, but scared and too shy to come up to us, though she will meep at us from a close distance. She’s gone through four bowls of food so far today.
Both Obi and Kelly are already in love with her. Kelly ran himself ragged going from window to window to follow her progress.
And we were truly astounded by Obi. Before now, we’ve only seen him go up against male cats and he goes after them with a vengeance. He is absolutely intolerant of a male cat coming anywhere onto our property. In fact, this afternoon he disappeared for hours after chasing off a male cat. It’s a cat that looks like it could be this girl’s father, a dark tabby and white, but quite big. That other cat has been around for over a year and Obi has chased him off a number of times.
And yet Obi allowed this little cat to sniff his tail while he was lying on the woodbox. He hung out near her in the back yard. When we gave them both bowls of food, he went over to her, gently went forehead to forehead with her, then sat back and let her eat. Tonight, he didn’t react at all when she jumped onto the woodbox with him. We were gobsmacked.
That’s main reason we think she’s a she. We simply can’t see Obi allowing even a young male cat to be so friendly with him.
Randy’s been in touch with a new neighbor that lives behind us because she moved in with some cats. She confirmed that this is a stray that’s been around since Oct. Her roommate used to feed it, but now her roommate has moved out. This young woman is away from home most of the time and can’t be there to feed a stray. So it’s no wonder the stray has come over to us.
It's also possible that her left ear has been tipped. I’m not absolutely sure, but it doesn’t come to a point the same as her right ear. If it has been tipped, that would indicate someone treated her as a feral, and that maybe she’s been spayed. It raises a lot of other questions, though.
The problem is two-fold: a) we have too many cats to take care of already; and b) she’s young and we’re old. It would be irresponsible of us to take in a young cat that would almost be sure to outlive us.
Tonight, I’m going to reposition the cat shelter on the porch and see whether we can get her to use it. Obi has refused to use it and frankly, he’s now too chonky to even get into it. But it would be a perfect size for a little cat like her. She doesn’t have a thick, fluffy coat like Obi to protect her from the cold.
I’ve posted these pictures of her on a local pet FB page in the hope someone will either claim her or be willing to take her in. Bast show us mercy.
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