Cats, Bunnies, Skunks...

from Sunday, May 15, 2005

It is early morning and I just looked out the window. There were three bunnies out there. Then I looked around and saw my cat watching them; quick, get him some cat food! He usually just likes to watch, but when he had a "cat door" in our last house, he would sometimes bring in baby bunnies, and birds. We would chase him and he almost always dropped it, bleeding a bit, and then we would have to chase the poor thing to catch it and release it far from the house. Last week a squirrel was walking around on the back porch and I moved to a different window to watch it and was very surprised to see our cat lounging on a chair, just watching it.

He is an outside cat now. I built him a house from a big box; lined it with padding covered with blanket, to keep him warm this winter. He never used it. He used his "summer bed" all winter. He would sit on the top of the box, but never go in. I tried putting him in it to show him how comfy it was, and he would jump out like I was trying to trick him into a trip to the Vet. It is at the dump now.

He is a very big, black and white tuxedo cat. He is very aloof, not needy. He was an adolescent when we first took him in. We were in an apartment while we built our first house, and would see him sleeping on our porch, in a box that was there. We didn't want a pet, but he became very sick and I had to get him to a Vet or he surely would have died. The kids loved him, and named him Sox. He soon hit puberty and became obnoxious, jerking his tail and spraying everything. He was smitten with a small cat, and spent lots of time trying to get her pregnant. He did, and we had him neutered. He seemed very pissed off, for a long time, about the neutering.

My daughter asked a man in the apartment complex, who had a black and white cat, if she could borrow her, to show to me. When she took it back the guy said he didn't want it back. She told him she couldn't keep it and he said,"Then you have a problem, don't you." and never answered his door again. She was a very clever cat and would crawl up the exhaust pipe for the cook top, before it was connected, and would end up meowing in the kitchen cabinet! Luckily I found a home for her soon after that.

Sox is very territorial and won't be friendly with any other cats. After we moved into our house, I coaxed a starving, stray, long haired, black and white cat out of a field by our house. She was beautiful, with long hair on her cheeks that stuck out like on Silvester the Cat of Tweety Bird fame. I put an ad in the paper to find her a home, after we had fattened her up, but I made a huge mistake. I forgot to say that she was terrified of dogs. I drove up to the home of the first people who called and they had dogs. The lady was out the door already and the cat was freaking out, clinging to me with her claws. The lady was ecstatic about what a beautiful cat she was and promised she would be inside, away from the dogs. It just felt so wrong, but I gave her the cat.

My husband smokes outside. One evening, while having a cigarette by the creek and he thought Sox had joined him, but when he looked down, it was a skunk standing next to him!

Another time I saw Sox walking up the driveway with a green snake wrapped around his head. I took it away from him, but he looked so funny.

My very favorite stray was Raggamuffin. I loved that cat, but it is a long story. And the amorous kitten with a crush on Sox. But I'll save them for a different entry.