Between worlds: observations of a semi-feral boy

A Huge Important Milestone

Today I have been TNRed and vaccinated for one whole calendar year. And to celebrate all the wonderful things that have happened in my life since then, Mama took the ADOPTABLE notice off my page! Yes, I really have officially found my furever home, and it's HERE, with the People I Chose!

I kind of knew this when I started coming inside whenever I wanted, and sleeping on Mama's bed, and also on her pillow and her face, but humans sometimes will take a ridiculously long time to come to the obvious conclusion.

Tomorrow (my annifursary) I get to go see the Vet and get my "boosters". Mama says I am such a different cat from the crazy wild thing that got loose in the office last year - despite being sedated and just out of surgery - and ran all over the place until I was subdued by her AND the Vet AND his assistant AND a squeezy bag thing that they stuck me in to give me my shots! Now I let her pick me up and do pretty much whatever she wants with me, as long as it involves her snuggling me. She can rub my toes, and the inside of my ears, and my belly, and the base of my tail, and I don't get annoyed - I just kind of pass out on her chest, and purr, and drool with pleasure. So she thinks it won't be too hard to handle me through a few shots, although she'll bring her sturdy suede Cow!Cat Taming Gloves(tm) with us, just in case.

I still chase Leo sometimes, just because he deserves it - he won't stop growling at me and puffing his tail and running away. Such a wuss! His fluffy paws slip all over the hardwood floors when he's scrambling, which is kind of funny. And Pixie screams at me a lot, but she screams at effurycat. Inside is wonderful, especially on cold nights - but sometimes it's a madhouse in here with those two yelling at me all the time, and since I'm a mellow and tranquil dude, when they get on my nerves too much I let Mama know I want to spend some quiet time on my Porch. Lady and Thomas often join me out there, and we hang around contemplating stuff and doing yoga poses. It's my Porch/Ashram, really.

Speaking of which, there is yet ANOTHER cat who likes my Porch. He (Mama THINKS He's a He) came around on New Year's Eve and has been a regular visitor ever since. He's all black, and he's scared to death of Mama and Daddy and the Boy, but he comes inside the Porch when it's cold or wet out, and he eats MY food there. (Mama says she puts out enough food and water for all of us, and I can share, but I don't want to share with him! I don't mind sharing with the cats who live here, but HE DOESN'T! He just ... um ... hangs out here! And sleeps here! And eats here!) We've had a few scuffles, and he's scratched me up a bit (nothing serious, and I'm sure I've put a hurtin' on him too), but sometimes Mama peeks out and we're both asleep - one of us on the Papasan, and one of us in or near the Igloo, in front of the toasty warm Heater. Of course, if I see him going out the cat door I BOUND after him and give him a swipe or two. "Yeah, you'd BETTER run! I'll kick your fluffy tail from one end of my turf to the other, you interloping so-and-so!"

Mama is going to try to TNR him too, but since he won't let her near him yet she's trying to think of the best way to accomplish the T part without terrifying him entirely. She thinks she'll just put the trap on the porch, with food in it but the spring not set, and see if he goes for it for a few days, and then one night when there's a clinic the next day she'll set it and see if she gets him.

She's also named him Dougal MacDuff, which she says means Dark Stranger With Dark Forebears. Fits him, I guess. She says she wants him to have a proper name. I think this implies that she thinks Cow!Cat is not a proper name, which ... I object! I think I have a perfectly lovely and suitably descriptive name! And this Dougal character, he's just posing as pseudo-Scottish nobility!

So that's my big news for this New Year. Life just keeps getting better, doesn't it?