One of my favorite (and worst) time wasters is fussing over my 3 outdoor kitties – Kit (male – very feral), Cassie (spayed female – feral or hard-stray) and Hat. Lately all 3 have been coming around together – it’s like a cattery out there! Feeding them is a challenge – Kit is much more timid than the other two and rarely gets his fair share when they’re around. Both boys seem to be very good friends with Cassie. They’re not as cozy with each other, but they seem to get along allright.

Here’s a recent picture of the handsome Kit-Man:

And another …

I’m not too sure Hat doesn’t have an owner. He’s friendly – VERY friendly – purrs like a fool and works his big paws if you pet him – he can’t seem to get enough of it! (Neither of the other cats are “touchable”.) When I eventually go indoors, he sits on the porch and stares longingly at my front door.

He’s also tried to follow me inside the house a couple of times (little does he know there’d be hell to pay from my girls!) And while he’s not FAT (he looks “fluffy” in photos, but he’s just a big-boned male with a very thick coat) he doesn’t seem as thin as the other two either.

OTOH, he’s out at all hours of the day and night in all kinds of weather, including rain, snowstorms and zero degree temperatures. I certainly wouldn’t let MY cats out in that kind of weather, then again, I don’t let my cats outside at all.

Early this winter I broke down and bought a little insulated kitty hut for them. After a few weeks of viewing it with suspicion, all 3 of them are using it now and then. It’s big enough for 2 cats to sleep in, if they’re good friends. Here’s Hat proving that it’s big enough for even a big boy like him…

Writing this post made me realize I need more pictures of Cassie, but she’s always hiding behind the trash cans or under the car, neither of which are very picturesque!

My good camera came back from the repair shop just in time to catch a rare photo of “Hat” the feral cat! Hat is VERY shy – I rarely seem him/her. This is the first time I’ve seen Hat around in the daytime – it was nice and sunny and (s)he was catching a few rays in my neighbor’s yard.

So for those who don’t believe that I feed a feral cat with “Sheltie ears” …

Those ears have been scarred and folded over like that for at least 2 years, whether from a fight, a bad case or ear-mites or frostbite. I nicknamed him/her “Hat” because it looks like a bad case of hat-head. Other than the disfigured ears, (s)he appears to be in pretty good condition and carries that big, thick coat that ferals get in winter. I’m guessing Hat is a “he” because we’d have a faster-growing feral population if “she” was an intact female, but I’ve never gotten close enough to get a look. Aren’t those eyes beautiful?

Here’s a picture of Cassie (spayed feral female). If she’s hungry and the dish is empty she waits on the steps for me to feed her – very cute!

It’s not easy being a feral cat!

Dodging cars, getting “shooed” by people and dive-bombed by angry birds… in winter there just aren’t enough critters around for a guy to get a good square meal. Then there’s the weather – slogging through mud, rain and snow, slipping on the ice, getting your fur covered in sleet, trying to find someplace safe and warm to sleep …

But sometimes life cuts you a break. A warm, sunny day, a covered porch a chair with a soft, fleecy blanket where you can catch a long catnap and a meal (with a yummy dried fish treat on top) waiting for you when you wake up -and for a few hours at least, life is good!

Kit and Cassie have been visiting regularly. I had another “Hat” sighting a few days ago – that’s twice within 6 mos! (S)He looked good. I must get a picture someday – its ironic that a cat with tipped ears would gravitate to a house with 3 Shelties!

(No I didn’t mis-file something about agility under “Cats”)

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I feed a very small colony of feral cats. These are “hard strays” – you can’t get near them. One of them, “Cassie” is a little bolder around me than the others. She’s very cute – when she’s hungry she’ll hang out someplace near the house where I can see her (and where she can keep an eye on the dish where I feed them) but crouch down very small and slow-blink her eyes to little slits if I look at her.

For the last several weeks, I’ve been teaching her to take fish treats off a glove that I put on the ground. If I crouch down, stay VERY still and don’t look at her, she’ll cautiously approach and take it. (She always sniffs the glove a lot afterwards – don’t know if she’s investigating the scents on the glove or just making sure she didn’t miss anything.) I’ve been moving closer and closer to the glove …

Last night we had a big breakthrough – she took the treat from the glove while it was ON MY HAND!!! I could feel her little nose through the fingers of the glove. It’s the first time I’ve made actual contact with any of these guys – I almost cried!

I don’t know if I will ever make any progress with “Kit” or “Hat” but maybe … just maybe … there’s some hope for this one!

I went out a little while ago and saw a greyish shape hiding under my car. Assuming it was Cassie (one of my ferals), I went in and got her dinner. When I went back out, who should I see but the cat I called “Hat”!

“Hat” is easy to identify – a medium large gray cat with faint tabby markings and ears which are scarred and disfigured – bent over on his/her head … hence the name “Hat”. “Hat” is at least 5 years old and may be a half (or possibly full) sibling to my ‘Bika – a kitten from her mother’s prior litter. Like ‘Bika, Hat has a very, VERY long tail.

I hadn’t seen “Hat” in over 18 mos!

Hat doesn’t “know” me, so (s)he left without dinner, slinking off into the woods. I felt bad. Immediately afterwards, the “real” Cassie came along – she was hungry and even approached a few steps when I tossed treats to her.

So the colony, as sighted within the last month currently consists of:

• Cassie
• Kit (Hasn’t been around much, but I caught him asleep in my chair one time)
• Hat!
• MomCat (hangs out here, may belong to someone)
• O.C. (Orange cat – Almost always with MomCat, also may belong to someone. No actual sighting, but found some clumps of orange fur on my chair)