This is my final question I promise. But it's been looming over my head for a
long time now and it's really distressing me. I know I have told you all that
my street has neighborhood 24/7 outdoor cats that technically belong to a lady
a few houses up from me. But all the neighbors kind of look after them and
some feed/keep water out. The lady who brought them to the street "rescued"
them from her sister- whom she said wasn't taking care of them- the sister had
not spayed/neutered. She got connected with one of the local agencies and had
them all fixed for a discount (she is low income). She already has five indoor
cats so these cats became outdoor cats. Almost all of them have clipped ears
(except one) that show they have been fixed. Some of them started out as
indoor/outdoor and then I guess found they liked being like colony cats better
so they pretty much stay out year round. She has a front porch where she has
boxes set up for them in the winter, etc. They are all male, except for one.
I started feeding them too myself when I moved to the street over a year ago
because I didn't know the situation- were they homeless, etc.? I finally got
the whole story. There is one, a little girl who I call, "Lil Girl" who pretty
much has re-transplanted herself to my property. I treated her for tapeworms
and I have been giving her Advantage thru the summer. I was worried about her
being so small, even tho she's about 5 yo, so I kept feeding her quality food
to beef her up, even after determining her sort-of home situation. But now she
is a permanent resident pretty much at my front door. She is there every
morning waiting for me and in the evening. It so sad because I do not own my
house and my landlord needs his house back and I am moving the weekend after
next. I don't know what to do? The other outdoor cats who I feed are just
occasional visitors-- they will be fine without me and I will have a talk with
all the neighbors about calling me if something happens and I was going to
leave a couple bags of expensive, quality food with the lady up the street to
feed them, etc. I know I will stop by a lot to check on them because I am very
tied to the neighborhood by exercise classes I attend, etc. But I am really
upset about the Lil Girl. I can't tell if she just hangs out with me and at my
house JUST BECAUSE I feed her and she likes my food better or because she likes
me? I worry about the effect of my leaving on her? She'll be waiting for me
the next morning and I won't show? My landlord is allergic to cats and I doubt
he will be feeding them (I have to have a talk with him about at least being
nice to them tho and letting him know they will be at the door for a while
until they "figure it out." He's young and a hippy/nature person, so he will
be cool about it, he just won't be the cat-person that I was). But everytime I
think about Lil Girl, I just want to cry. She's beautiful, but she's a top
banana- she's runs roughshod over the much larger outdoor boy cats- three and 4
times her size! It's already going to be crazy enough at my mom's house trying
to integrate my declawed Izzee with my mom's hissing, scratching Tally, my
mom's new Humane Society dog who doesn't like Tally/cats and is still trying to
kill Tally (they are working on it) and then my three crated foster kitties!
Ironically, I think the foster kitties will have the smoothest transition!
They don't ask for much! My mom and I have gone round and round about what to
do about Lil Girl b/c my mom likes her too and worries about her. Before I got
the foster kittens, I thought about taking her with me. I'm pretty sure the
lady up the street would let me have her b/c that would be one less
mouth....but I don't know if Lil Girl could become a house cat? Would she be
happy, or is there some colony-cat psychology that I would be interfering with?
I fear she would kill Izzee and Tally given the chance-- or at least beat them
up. Lil Girl is not feral tho- I can pick her up and hold her- tho it's not
her fave thing. She seems to just "perfer" to be outside, so it's like she's
somewhere in between, so she presents such a problem for me!?
I just don't know what to do? I need advice! Reassurance?
-Caroline
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