This fine fellow used to live across the street, but the people moved away. He’s been living under the tarp that covers the wood pile.
Recently he he has decided that we are acceptable people and has moved in with us, rather than just mooching our food outside.
E. Jim has a similar situation with a cat they call Boots. I have too many damn cats as it is, but Hermie is a sweetheart. He follows Erica around and sleeps with us on the bed. The other cats could care less about us, but Hermie needs lovin’ all the time.
I guess we’ll keep him, although I’ve asked the other cats to vote one of their number out of the house.
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the ony problem with stray cats is many of the havn;t been fixed and they are prone to spray. Anne had a
stray a few years ago and part of her family before I got here in the fall of 2000 that sprayed right on my other monitor. Wrecked the whole thing.
We’re not going to adapt Boots or anything unless Pledges goes in ’09but we’ll keep Boots in on cold days like today.
Hermie is fixed and is nicely house trained. H only uses the box in case of emergency. He prefers outside. We’ve had unaltered cats, and if they get in the habit of spraying they sometimes continue even after they are fixed.
Unaltered males don’t live more than two or three years. There are usually free spay-neuter clinics so you might get him fixed even if you don’t let him inside right now.
“Unaltered males don’t live more than two or three years.”
I just mentioned this to Anne. We’ll have to get him fixed up I guess. Sigh, more money out the window. Oh well it’s for a good cause.
Hermie looks as if he has always lived with you. I’m glad to finally see a cat picture!
The other problem with leaving males unaltered is that they are then free to become proud papas of various and sundry litters, creating more and more stray cats. And kittens born ‘in the wild’ are prone to all kinds of horrible diseases.
I personally don’t like the idea of fixing cats, in that I feel that the cat has no say in the matter; I feel really guilty. However, the alternative is worse, so … that’s my rationale. I currently have two altered (by us) males – strays who decided to adopt me – but there have been many, many cats in our family history. You can usually get male cats ‘fixed’ fairly cheaply ($100 or less?) if your local SPCA has a spay/neuter clinic.
Good luck! Boots is adorable, and Hermie is quite regal-looking. :)