Gentleman cat
May. 13th, 2026 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormI very much want to tell this story but I'm a little foggy headed, for reasons that will come clear in the story. Still, here we go.
Some time ago (a few months?) a cat showed up in the upper woodpile. I took a picture and sent it to the neighbours to ask about it, since they seem to keep track of the cats around. They hadn't seen him before but came over to look because he had a facial marking the same as their cat who had disappeared last fall. It wasn't their cat, and it wouldn't let us get closer than about ten feet, but we noticed that he was an intact male at that time.
He's a black and white tuxedo type cat with a very distinctive Marilyn Monroe single black spot by his lip.
I didn't see the cat again after that for awhile, and I knew the neighbours were putting out food for him, I guess they were feeding three and then four neighbourhood cats. They have their own indoor cats as well, and take excellent care of them.
It slipped out of my mind until yesterday, when there was a flash of this cat as I came out my back door and he headed towards the dry creek and the winter field; the woodpile is past those, so he'd come quite far towards the house. He fled only a short distance, out of sight but not out of sound because I guess Hazard saw him, they both froze about six feet away from each other, and Hazard started a somewhat distressed howling song.
I went up to pet Hazard, which quieted him down, and this interloper cat meowed at me.
Throughout the day I went in that direction and the cat tended to be visible, and when he meowed at me insistently the first time I brought him out some wet food with lots of water in it (it's so dry, there's not a lot of water around right now). He came forward and ate it while I watched from ten or more feet away and puttered in the garden. I reclaimed the bowl. I thought that was that; it was early afternoon at that point.
Well, a couple hours later he was there again, in the upper field which is between the woodpile and the winter garden: a little further away, but in a flat space by the path which comes down to the house. Again I noticed him because Hazard was in a locked-eye standoff with him, though Hazard didn't meow as distressedly this time.
Again the black cat meowed at me insistently (I do always meow back) and I noticed he wasn't putting weight on his front paw. This took the situation from "how nice, the local cat is visiting" to "I need to do something"
Without thinking it through very clearly I slowly worked my way towards the cat over about twenty minutes, sharing slow blinks and talking lots and going at his pace. He let me pet him and pick him up. This was a poorly thought out plan because he didn't let me hold him, and I didn't have a carrier, so he jumped down and kept his space of about ten feet.
I got him another bowl of food from the house, making sure it was nice and mixed with water, and he ate that when given some space. As a gesture of goodwill I kept twenty feet or so away, in plain view, and I always chat away when I'm trying not to scare an animal so they can tell exactly where I am and know I'm not trying to sneak up.
Being a slow learner I made another slow approach and picked him up again, thinking maybe I had just picked him up in such a way to hurt his injured paw. No luck, he jumped down and I let him, and he kept some distance. I finally realized that maybe I should have somewhere to put him and put a carrier up in the field, so if I picked him up I could put him in it instead of trying to carry him all the way back to the house.
He of course didn't let me pick him up a third time but we chatted a bit and he went onto the woodpile and did a little long scratch on it, the kind of excited friendly thing cats do, but he couldn't scratch hard because of his poor paw and it just broke my heart.
At this point he had basically approached me or stayed in places I was likely to go and meowed at me several times. I was worried about him; he clearly wasn't fully feral, he clearly was injured, and he clearly had selected me as most likely to be able to help. I decided to leave the carrier in the field and try again tomorrow morning since I'd been sitting in the mosquiotoes for an hour or two at that point and had picked him up twice with no plan, and he was therefore keeping his distance.
As the evening wore on I had also accumulated a train of my own cats, all of whom were suspicious of him in different ways (except Little Bear, who was merely watching curiously from a distance and looking entertained). Around 8:30 PM I have Siri trained to watch me take my meds and then get a treat, and it was at least 9 by then, so he was trailing me and he's the most militant anti-cat of all my cats.
So, I went in. I took my meds. I brushed my teeth. I realized the rice cooker full of my dinner was there waiting. I heard a meow out my front door, stuck my head out, didn't see anyone, called "just let me get some clothes on, I'll be right there" and went out to see the cat about ten feet from my front door, by the woodscrap pile. He meowed at me. Hazard grumbled at him.
Long and short I managed to get him that time, wrapping him snugly in a scarf and carrying him in. An XL dog crate was still set up from when I thought Solly could fit in it after her surgery, so I popped him in there with a litterbox, food, water, and some of those extra fuzzy blankets cats seem to love, the plush kind with no long strands to get swallowed or caught. We stared at each other awhile, did some slow blinking, and I bade him goodnight and closed the door on his little understairs room where the crate was.
My troupe of cats followed me up to bed and didn't stay down there to harass him. Solly was a little concerned, kept her distance, and behaved very well. She didn't even super stare at his spot or anything, just watched me like "what are you doing now?"
This morning my cats are interested when I'm down there but not enough to hang out and harass the area. He'd eaten every bit of his food and used his litterbox several times. When I brought him breakfast and cleaned the litterbox he approached the door as if to go out, but he had to go across my lap and we had a snuggle instead. He didn't fight at all to go past me, and was very happy to be thoroughly scritched and then returned to the cage of food and blankets.
Up close, after a night's sleep, it's actually pretty heartbreaking.
He's thin, I think he probably can't hunt well with that injured front paw. There's no blood on the paw, so it's maybe something internal? He has those huge fatty tomcat pads in his cheeks which make him look less thin from a distance. They're super interesting to feel, they really stick out and are definitely, well, fatty pads. His fur is dry and rough and coming out a bit as I pet him; it feels very dusty too in the way that dry dust in hair will make it kind of tacky and dreadlocky, though he has no dreadlocks. His ears have that slightly crenelated edge from lots of fights that healed over and he has an abcess that's mostly healed over his eye. I guess that's a common spot for injuries when fighting and commonly gets infected. This one is nearly healed over but it still tells its story. Lots of nicks and scars all over him, though he looks pretty young yet.
Tomcat pee, even in a proper litterbox, smells worse than I thought, which I guess I knew.
He never once took a swipe at me, unsheathed his claws while I was holding him, or so much as hissed. He never swiped at the other cats. If he was truly purring and not just sniffing this morning while getting scritches he has a very quiet little purr. Last night when he was in the cage, after several eyenarrows, he kept falling asleep. He has not been safe for quite awhile. I hope he feels safe now.
Next steps involve hearing back from the neighbours about whether they actually want him -- they'd made a comment to that effect that maybe he'd end up in their home back at the first sighting. I emailed the rescue group saying that I'd found him, could they see if he was anyone's, and honestly probably was pretty incoherent because it was 10pm by then.
He needs vetting for that paw and for fleas etc though, and the snip. Siri had just started comfortably sleeping on the bed comfortably with his archnemesis Demon so I'm not sure my domestic harmony can survive him staying here, and he needs a home.
That's the story so far anyhow.
Some time ago (a few months?) a cat showed up in the upper woodpile. I took a picture and sent it to the neighbours to ask about it, since they seem to keep track of the cats around. They hadn't seen him before but came over to look because he had a facial marking the same as their cat who had disappeared last fall. It wasn't their cat, and it wouldn't let us get closer than about ten feet, but we noticed that he was an intact male at that time.
He's a black and white tuxedo type cat with a very distinctive Marilyn Monroe single black spot by his lip.
I didn't see the cat again after that for awhile, and I knew the neighbours were putting out food for him, I guess they were feeding three and then four neighbourhood cats. They have their own indoor cats as well, and take excellent care of them.
It slipped out of my mind until yesterday, when there was a flash of this cat as I came out my back door and he headed towards the dry creek and the winter field; the woodpile is past those, so he'd come quite far towards the house. He fled only a short distance, out of sight but not out of sound because I guess Hazard saw him, they both froze about six feet away from each other, and Hazard started a somewhat distressed howling song.
I went up to pet Hazard, which quieted him down, and this interloper cat meowed at me.
Throughout the day I went in that direction and the cat tended to be visible, and when he meowed at me insistently the first time I brought him out some wet food with lots of water in it (it's so dry, there's not a lot of water around right now). He came forward and ate it while I watched from ten or more feet away and puttered in the garden. I reclaimed the bowl. I thought that was that; it was early afternoon at that point.
Well, a couple hours later he was there again, in the upper field which is between the woodpile and the winter garden: a little further away, but in a flat space by the path which comes down to the house. Again I noticed him because Hazard was in a locked-eye standoff with him, though Hazard didn't meow as distressedly this time.
Again the black cat meowed at me insistently (I do always meow back) and I noticed he wasn't putting weight on his front paw. This took the situation from "how nice, the local cat is visiting" to "I need to do something"
Without thinking it through very clearly I slowly worked my way towards the cat over about twenty minutes, sharing slow blinks and talking lots and going at his pace. He let me pet him and pick him up. This was a poorly thought out plan because he didn't let me hold him, and I didn't have a carrier, so he jumped down and kept his space of about ten feet.
I got him another bowl of food from the house, making sure it was nice and mixed with water, and he ate that when given some space. As a gesture of goodwill I kept twenty feet or so away, in plain view, and I always chat away when I'm trying not to scare an animal so they can tell exactly where I am and know I'm not trying to sneak up.
Being a slow learner I made another slow approach and picked him up again, thinking maybe I had just picked him up in such a way to hurt his injured paw. No luck, he jumped down and I let him, and he kept some distance. I finally realized that maybe I should have somewhere to put him and put a carrier up in the field, so if I picked him up I could put him in it instead of trying to carry him all the way back to the house.
He of course didn't let me pick him up a third time but we chatted a bit and he went onto the woodpile and did a little long scratch on it, the kind of excited friendly thing cats do, but he couldn't scratch hard because of his poor paw and it just broke my heart.
At this point he had basically approached me or stayed in places I was likely to go and meowed at me several times. I was worried about him; he clearly wasn't fully feral, he clearly was injured, and he clearly had selected me as most likely to be able to help. I decided to leave the carrier in the field and try again tomorrow morning since I'd been sitting in the mosquiotoes for an hour or two at that point and had picked him up twice with no plan, and he was therefore keeping his distance.
As the evening wore on I had also accumulated a train of my own cats, all of whom were suspicious of him in different ways (except Little Bear, who was merely watching curiously from a distance and looking entertained). Around 8:30 PM I have Siri trained to watch me take my meds and then get a treat, and it was at least 9 by then, so he was trailing me and he's the most militant anti-cat of all my cats.
So, I went in. I took my meds. I brushed my teeth. I realized the rice cooker full of my dinner was there waiting. I heard a meow out my front door, stuck my head out, didn't see anyone, called "just let me get some clothes on, I'll be right there" and went out to see the cat about ten feet from my front door, by the woodscrap pile. He meowed at me. Hazard grumbled at him.
Long and short I managed to get him that time, wrapping him snugly in a scarf and carrying him in. An XL dog crate was still set up from when I thought Solly could fit in it after her surgery, so I popped him in there with a litterbox, food, water, and some of those extra fuzzy blankets cats seem to love, the plush kind with no long strands to get swallowed or caught. We stared at each other awhile, did some slow blinking, and I bade him goodnight and closed the door on his little understairs room where the crate was.
My troupe of cats followed me up to bed and didn't stay down there to harass him. Solly was a little concerned, kept her distance, and behaved very well. She didn't even super stare at his spot or anything, just watched me like "what are you doing now?"
This morning my cats are interested when I'm down there but not enough to hang out and harass the area. He'd eaten every bit of his food and used his litterbox several times. When I brought him breakfast and cleaned the litterbox he approached the door as if to go out, but he had to go across my lap and we had a snuggle instead. He didn't fight at all to go past me, and was very happy to be thoroughly scritched and then returned to the cage of food and blankets.
Up close, after a night's sleep, it's actually pretty heartbreaking.
He's thin, I think he probably can't hunt well with that injured front paw. There's no blood on the paw, so it's maybe something internal? He has those huge fatty tomcat pads in his cheeks which make him look less thin from a distance. They're super interesting to feel, they really stick out and are definitely, well, fatty pads. His fur is dry and rough and coming out a bit as I pet him; it feels very dusty too in the way that dry dust in hair will make it kind of tacky and dreadlocky, though he has no dreadlocks. His ears have that slightly crenelated edge from lots of fights that healed over and he has an abcess that's mostly healed over his eye. I guess that's a common spot for injuries when fighting and commonly gets infected. This one is nearly healed over but it still tells its story. Lots of nicks and scars all over him, though he looks pretty young yet.
Tomcat pee, even in a proper litterbox, smells worse than I thought, which I guess I knew.
He never once took a swipe at me, unsheathed his claws while I was holding him, or so much as hissed. He never swiped at the other cats. If he was truly purring and not just sniffing this morning while getting scritches he has a very quiet little purr. Last night when he was in the cage, after several eyenarrows, he kept falling asleep. He has not been safe for quite awhile. I hope he feels safe now.
Next steps involve hearing back from the neighbours about whether they actually want him -- they'd made a comment to that effect that maybe he'd end up in their home back at the first sighting. I emailed the rescue group saying that I'd found him, could they see if he was anyone's, and honestly probably was pretty incoherent because it was 10pm by then.
He needs vetting for that paw and for fleas etc though, and the snip. Siri had just started comfortably sleeping on the bed comfortably with his archnemesis Demon so I'm not sure my domestic harmony can survive him staying here, and he needs a home.
That's the story so far anyhow.
