The Feral Cat Adventure has come to a most satisfying close. Of course the story will be on-going, but for this blog, it is finished. Quigley has become the most adorable house cat. Right from the first he was so different from the other kittens. Genetics? must be, but how? So intriguing that one could be so frightened that he hissed and scratched from the day he came (He was going to another outside feral home along with another of my choosing) and Quigley at the other end of the spectrum. The four black ones were somewhere in the middle.
After I noticed that the mattress pad in the bedroom where they were living had been shredded in places, it was time to make the decision to take the two black ones to the barn. My goal was to have them be barn cats, not ferals like the other 3 that already live in the barn, which we don’t see except at night now and then. To that end, Bob took off the feed room door and replaced it with a screen door of his making. That way they would be safe, but could see out. This worked for about 2 weeks, but then their plaintive meows got to me and I decided to let them out during the day and hopefully entice them back in to feed at night, and shut the door so they would be safe. This has worked perfectly except for one night when they wouldn’t go in the room even to eat. I am met in the morning with more sad meows to be let out. I learned by experience that I must turn a deaf ear to them until I am finished with feeding the horses and take the dogs back outside.
Miss Molly
Buttercup, the Doberman is only a year old and while she is not intent on doing harm..I hope..chasing is definitely on the agenda. She chased them up a Pinyon Pine tree, and I held my breath watching as they darted up and then back down. Thunder, the male, is all boy and the first to do dangerous stuff. Lucy the female is much more shy and careful. Lucy got her name by always being the last one in the room at night and sometimes making me think she will not come. The song “You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille” kept going through my head, so Lucy she became.
Molly, the 15 year old Persian mix, who had not been nice to the original feral kittens of last year, knew these from being in the house with them, so she is nice to them in the barn. Molly used to sit by the feral cat food dishes and not let them eat at night if we couldn’t catch her to bring to the house. Molly is her own girl, for 15 years has been an inside/outside cat,impossible to keep in a door if she wanted out. She was an adoptee from an Indiana humane shelter 15 years ago. Who can understand cat politics?
Quigley has made up with husband Hal, and is in the process of doing the same with son Bob. That is where I see his feral roots showing. Thunder the black male was always sort of friendly in the house, and in the barn has continued to be friendly. I can pick him up and he rubs my legs and purrs. Lucy has just now decided that I can touch her.
All in all a good happy outcome for everyone!
Thunder
Quigley
Anything Equine & Canine 