Orange Cat
Apr. 20th, 2023 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petrea_mitchellEvery spring, tomcats feel the need to roam. We will get a few stopping by to see if the backyard ferals might be interested in having more kittens, but they give up after a few days after figuring out that the ferals are never going to be in heat again.
One of them is a huge orange cat who's been visiting the last couple springs. This year, though, he was still making friendly noises around the house at all hours of the day after a month, and he'd started eating at the feral food bowl, which he'd never been interested in before. At that point we realized that he might be trying to integrate himself into the backyard colony.
I don't know if he's actually denning with the other ferals under the house, since the way they get in is on the one side of the house that has no windows. But the hopeful trilling is definitely coming from under the house sometimes. I've seen him challenged by Obnoxious Cat twice now and both times he refused to back down (although he didn't right either, just sat there and waited for Obnoxious Cat to give up), so he does seem to think the house is part of his territory, at least.
We've printed up flyers which I'll go post around the neighborhood to see if we can find out where he's been living recently. If no one contacts us, or they confirm that he's moved away from his old den, then it'll be time to prepare for trapping him to get him neutered.
This is the best photo I've been able to get of him so far. It really doesn't do justice to his epic size or his epic orangeness.
One of them is a huge orange cat who's been visiting the last couple springs. This year, though, he was still making friendly noises around the house at all hours of the day after a month, and he'd started eating at the feral food bowl, which he'd never been interested in before. At that point we realized that he might be trying to integrate himself into the backyard colony.
I don't know if he's actually denning with the other ferals under the house, since the way they get in is on the one side of the house that has no windows. But the hopeful trilling is definitely coming from under the house sometimes. I've seen him challenged by Obnoxious Cat twice now and both times he refused to back down (although he didn't right either, just sat there and waited for Obnoxious Cat to give up), so he does seem to think the house is part of his territory, at least.
We've printed up flyers which I'll go post around the neighborhood to see if we can find out where he's been living recently. If no one contacts us, or they confirm that he's moved away from his old den, then it'll be time to prepare for trapping him to get him neutered.
This is the best photo I've been able to get of him so far. It really doesn't do justice to his epic size or his epic orangeness.
