Oh no
- the not Mr. Scruffy, napping in warmer weather
It's been very cold here and last night the cat I've been thinking of as my neighbor's cat, Mr. Scruffy, spent a lot of time meowing outside. Today I visited my neighbor to ask if he was ok and it turns out there *is* no Mr. Scruffy - her two black cars are both female, and she said the male cat has no owner. I so don't want a cat! I guess that sounds mean, but it's hard to take care of a pet when you can't see them very well and can't drive them to the vet. When I adopted my other cats, my mom still lived here and helped me do the things I couldn't see well enough to do alone. And then there's the cost - the first thing my sister said when I told her about him was, "You can't afford a pet!" Oh well, I put a little dry food outside for him ... maybe that will be enough :(
posted by crystal | 7:42 PM
8 Comments:
Good to know that Mr. Scruffy is a Mr after all. I remember there was some confusion on that point.I bet he would be perfectly content to remain your friend and neighbor and grateful just to be invited in from the cold now and then. Your neighborhood sounds like a good place to be a cat.
Actually I live on a corner with an intersection and traffic, so that's worrisome. Do you think that's ok - feeding sometimes and being more friendly but not completely adopting?
PS - yes, one of my neighbor's black cats is named Scruffy and for a long time I was confusing the boy cat with her and then one day I saw them both at the same time. My sister had to point out that one of them was a boy - to my bad eyes they look identical.
Keeping in mind that your eyesight is poor I would not invite the cat into your house because then your sister will have to come over, find it, and take it outside. Feeding is Ok as long as he doesn't run into the house. Can you leave the food near your shed?
Thanks, Henry. Me being a worry-wort, I had already been keeping some dried emergency cat food in the fridge just in case something like this came up, so I started leaving out some of that and he's been eating it all. Maybe I'll have to get to know him better before I think about inviting him inside - he's still pretty shy. About not being able to see him - I did used to "lose' Kermit inside sometimes and not be able to find her, though I knew she was there somewhere - very frustrating! ;)
Cats seem to be able to find you when they need to. Like this Abby creature, always. Couldn't lose her if I wanted to. Rocky on the other hand is his own cat. His real home is Outdoors,stalking. But he needs his people from time to time. I'm ok with that. Not that I have a choice :)
So far Mr. Scruffy has sniffed my hand and eaten some dry food I put outside, but he doesn't seem inclined to get more friendly yet. But today there were to other cats eating the dry food that were not him - eek! ;)
I'm pretty much a control freak - I never let my cats go outside from when they were babies, and I turned Grendel, their mother, into an indoor only cat. I kept dreaming of winning the lottery and buying a house with an inclosed courtyard/garden so they could safely go outside. Looking back, I wish I hadn't made their lives so restricted.
I suspect it was cat heaven for them
Post a Comment
<< Home