The Rest, Strays and neighborhood cats


Through the years I fed almost all the neighborhood cats on my front porch. Cali belonged to Wanda but she was on my porch all the time. She even brought all her kittens over to see me and eat off the porch. The big old tom from across the street loved to lay on the porch because it set up really high and he could watch the whole street from that vantage point. I had a gate at the top of the steps and unless it was a really aggressive dog it would keep dogs away. One stray that was a permanent resident was Baby! A long haired tortoise shell who was one of the sweetest cats I have ever known. She never left the yard but she a tumor in her lungs.

One of the neighborhood cats was a beautiful long haired black cat who was very obviously pregnant. I fed her and petted her and she rewarded me with 3 weaned kittens and then went back home a couple of blocks away. I found homes for 2 of the kittens and kept Squeek. When she got pregnant again I shooed her away . . . I didn't want any more presents. LOL

There was also had an outdoor cat called Fudgie, a long haired grey tabby. She wouldn't come into the house even when the temperatures dipped to 15 below zero. I tried to bring her in but she fought me to get back out so I let her back out and she stayed with me for many years.

Boo Boo

She must have been fixed because she never got pregnant in all the years I had her, but she did bring home a kitten "Boo Boo". He was a cute little orange tabby but wild, wild, wild. I had a rough time taming him down. One day I "cleaned" his face using my thumb. I would lick it then run my finger over his head like his mama cat would have done. He settled down a lot after that. He was an outdoor cat all the way and would just have fits if he was left in the house. He didn't mind coming in and strolling around but if he got left in by mistake he would claw at the windows to get out again.

One of the most delightful experiences I had was sitting on the porch one night listening to him chase a mouse that Fudgie had brought for him to learn to mouse with. It would get away, squeaking all the way and he would chase it down and then turn it loose again. I couldn't help but laugh. He grew into a huge cat with a fabulous laid-back attitude. Fudgie disappeared the next year, but she had trained her replacement.

Unfortunately I found out after a couple of years that his "laid-back attitude" was due to a heart that was way to small for his big body and he collapsed and died when he was about 2 1/2 years old.

The last couple of years before I moved I had a feral stray female that just wouldn't let me near her or her kittens, she taught them to run whenever I came out. I was able to get a picture of one of them with BooBoo but for the most part they wouldn't stick around when I was out there. I felt bad because I knew that no one was going to take care of them when I moved but I couldn't do anything about it at the time.

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