‘Found Cat’ Neutered Today

I was never able to find anyone that claimed the cat that found me way last March, despite two massive attempts to do so. The Cove’s Management even helped with this campaign to find his rightful owner, all to no avail.

Sometime in April, I finally put dry food and water on the patio for him as he was crying incessantly and he was loud! Guess what, his crying went down dramatically.

All these weeks, he has been arriving on my patio every morning and evening for fresh food, though he never seems far away. Sometimes he stretches out on the cement and naps. He has come inside the apartment several times, when I have accidentally left the patio screen door open. (This would be fine except I am sure he has fleas, and he SPRAYS!) But as soon as he hears/sees me moving about, he exits quickly.

I have tried, tried, and tried to get close enough to stroke him, but he will not let anyone near him, including me. I actually wanted to get close enough to take that way too tight collar off, (which they will do today, when they neutered him) but it did not happen. Strangely enough, he gets along with The Sisters just fine; they posture once in awhile, but that is all it is.

The next step was to take the responsibility for seeing that he was neutered. We do not need any more unwanted kittens! Our local ‘feral’ cat population at the Famosa Slough is down dramatically from what it was a few years ago, and I did not want him contributing to the problem. I had planned to be able to ‘handle’ him by now, and take him in.

But as it worked out, The Feral Cat Coalition, (in the form of one of their wonderful volunteers, this one named ‘Mike’) loaned me a trap, coached me on how to trap him, came and got him, took him to the spay/neuter clinic, and bought him back and let him loose a day later.

It has been a week now, and he, the cat (no name) is recovering. This also has not been without worry or incident.

This poor, abandoned cat has been through enough. Why do people do this to animals? It is beyond me. I have never had an abandoned/stray cat take this long to 'warm up’; though I feel they are emotionally damaged by being abandoned.

And no, it's not my wheelchair he is skittish of, he won't let anyone near him. He does come to the patio door now to 'cry' for food, or to be talked too. I guess that is a ‘forward’ step.

Though an ‘outside’ cat, I think he’s decided that he lives here. His former owner must have been a fat old woman that smokes! One fine day he wandered by and found my apartment, smelled that smoke, and has not strayed far since.

Actually, I am not new to this, in the past 20 years; I have had two other stray males (cats, ha!) move in with me. They were easy compared to this guy, mainly because I could pet them, handle them, put advantage on, put them in a carrier, etc. Not this guy, and it makes it very difficult for me (physically, and emotionally) to help him.

For the time being, I have three cats! When I go get the mail, or empty the trash, The Sisters follow me, and he does too! I feel like the friggen pied piper; a fat old woman in a wheelchair followed by three cats, two with collars and bells! The neighbors think it is a riot.

I truly hope that California passes that law that pets have to be spayed or neutered unless the owner is a registered breeder.