Okay, so, you remember a few weeks ago how I mentioned that in about the same time span, not only did Rufus show up, but a black and white cat who looked a LOT like Joe Bob from a distance showed up too?
We dubbed the black and white Joe-alike “Newman” (or I should say I named him that), and after that day I didn’t see him again. We decided he belonged to someone down the road, and that he’d just stopped by for a visit.
AND THEN.
He showed up one day last week, and he looked ratty, and he was very hungry. I decided that if he hung around I’d snatch him up and have him checked out at the vet, at the very least have him neutered, and I’d send Fred up the road to see if we could figure out where he belonged. But after he ate, one of our cats chased him off the property, and I wondered if I’d see him again.
Sunday afternoon, Fred glanced out the window and told me that Newman was on the deck of the people next door. They don’t have any cats, so we knew Newman was just passing through. Fred went out and called to him, and he ran right over. We gave him canned cat food, and he wolfed that down, then started on the bowl of dry food sitting there.
Fred did the rounds of the neighbors, and as it turned out, Newman belonged to none of them, though several of them had seen him wandering around the neighborhood.
Yet another dumped cat, it appears.
We dithered about what to do, but really, we had no choice but to catch him (which was a very difficult procedure of going out onto the front porch with a carrier, picking up Newman, putting him inside the carrier, and closing the carrier.). I emailed the shelter manager and asked if there was any possibility of room at the shelter for him. Fred thought that if there was no room at the shelter, we could at least have him tested and neutered and perhaps put him in the guest bedroom with Rufus.
(“Or we could just let Rufus run free in Gen Pop,” Fred pointed out.)
As it turned out, there was room at the shelter. We kept him overnight (away from the other cats), and yesterday morning I dropped him off at the vet clinic to be tested (negative, YAY!), neutered, id chipped, and get his shots.
He’s a super friendly boy – hands-down the friendliest cat who has ever shown up here. All the other cats who’ve shown up have been scared, at least at first, but Newman was friendly from the get-go. He’s a sweet boy, I hope he finds his forever home soon!
“There are no other cats. There is only Maggie.”
Maggie would like you to appreciate her girlish figure.
She LOVES that scratcher, and in fact has pretty much torn the other side to shreds. We flipped it over for her, and she’s doing her best to take care of that side, too. She’s a giver, that Maggie.
Appetite: undiminished. Girth: ever larger. Perhaps a bit less talkative, but I can’t quite decide.
Bayyyyyyyyybeeeeeeeeees, Maggie. Give!
Rufus on the cat tree in the guest bedroom.
Rufus lookin’ sassy.
I do believe that the only time Rufus hid under the couch yesterday is when I got the vacuum cleaner out and turned it on. He fled in terror to his safe spot under the couch. (In my defense, I didn’t actually realize he was on top of the cat tree in the front room at the time!)
The rest of the day, he either snoozed on top of the cat tree in the front room or wandered around the house. It’s nice to see him out more and more each day. He still gets nervous if we walk directly toward him, but at least he doesn’t run off. He just keeps an eye on us ’til we’re past him, and then he resumes whatever he was doing.
Probably another night or two, we’ll leave him out overnight (instead of locking him in the guest bedroom) and see how that goes.
Newt would like you to know that he’s fully aware he’s gorgeous. But thank you for noticing.
Previously
2010: “That’s right, I done it, copper. I done it, and I’d do it again. I was loopy on catnip, no judge in the world is going to convict me. They’ll send me to rehab, I’ll come out clean and UNREPENTANT. So get out those cuffs and slap ‘em on, I AIN’T SCARED.”
2009: (I like to think that maybe someone who lives down the road was sitting in front of their TV and was struck with the sudden urge to grab the camera and go upstairs, and that they said “But I don’t HAVE an upstairs!”)
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.