Jan 02 2009
New Kitty on the Block
At some point over the Holidays, Michael and I were blessed with a new cat. It appeared to us on the stairway of our rowhouse and did its kitty thing of rolling over on the ground and rubbing against things to show us how adorable and loveable it was.
I just wanted to feed it, but Michael insisted we bring it inside. Inside our apartment. Where we have another cat. Things were going well until the new kitty starting hissing and yowling at Inari, who was mostly curious about the other cat, until it turned aggressive.
Well, we separated them and investigated new kitty to see if we could tell gender or whether it was homeless. The jury is still out. It is a male kitty – but he’s been neutered. His fur is thick and not particularly kempt, but not matty. His ears aren’t torn up like most outside cats, he doesn’t appear to be starving. He also has particular kitty habits, like Inari. He’s not particularly aggressive towards people, he vocalizes a lot, he uses his paws as hands to eat his wet food. It makes him seem like he belongs to another family. He’s also only outside in the evenings… or maybe that’s just when he shows up at our door. But he has no collar.
Well, we let him back outside because we thought he might belong to someone. He climbed up on a shed next door and watched us leave our apartment in our car. Every couple days now, he shows up. The other night, Michael walked to the liquor store and the cat was waiting for him when he got back. Twice now, I’ve come home from work and found him sitting on the stoop, waiting for me. Either someone has lost him, or left him, or he’s just a pig with a second dinner. I can’t tell. I hope it’s the last one.
Inari is jealous of the attention the new kitty gets. She should be on her best behavior, lest she be replaced.
he looks pretty fluffy/fat — maybe he’s just adopted you guys and thought he could get some petting and free food out of the deal? I suspect you could get him+Inari to get along but it would probably require keeping them separated for a while (and you probably wouldn’t want to do that without taking him to the vet, which I know is $$$).
He’s handsome though!
Beautiful! I love tortoiseshell cats.
Wow- what a pretty kitty – my experiance with torties – they are usually female – about 99 % – a male tortie is rare – most -tri colored kitties are female – judging by the ‘hind end’ pic on your web – looks like a female – it could be an unneutered female with a thick coat – she may be ‘with kitten’ if she is fat – I hope you can take her in – this very cold weather is bad for any animal – make sure she has water – it is easy to dehydrate in the cold ;-(
I am not sure if or when you will get this,but the cat is a female.As mentioned earlier,torti’s are almost never male.I do rescue and have never come across one.There is a saying about cats,”You don’t find them,they find you”.You see alot of abandonment with the forclosures.From what I can see,she looks great.The shelters are grossly overfilled and the animals are at a huge disadvantage.It would be her good fortune to find a forever home…thank you for looking out for her.
I just thought of something else.Torti’s have really interesting personalities.They are pedictably bossy… but very loving.This has been the majority of my experience.I have about 7 that I look after and though they are not the same they exhibit “like”traits.Mine ARE vocal.I see this post was a while ago,but cats most always get used to each other.Non altered animals tend to take precedence-there is no rule though.I am forever amazed at what cats do to survive and adjust.They are misunderstood by many -I have the highest regard for them as they have comforted me through some horrible times.There have been stray cats I have fed far away from my home to one day find them in my car port.This happened with 2 seperate males.One showed up when he was very ill,it was like he figured out where to go.One day it was cold and pouring rain and I stepped outside and there was a soaked orange tabby.On this day he let me catch him.Prior to that I could never get close to him but would feed him behind a service station.He found me and is still here today,that was 3 years ago!Good luck and God Bless.