After years of cats who got along very well together, we rescued a beautiful black cat who turned out to be quite a challenge.
Background - we live about 2 blocks from an animal shelter with a large undeveloped area between it and our housing development. When some people find out that the shelter will only keep the cats a couple of days before they kill them, they elect to just drop the cats off in the desert.
Unfortunately the desert contains many hazards, for domestic cats, from hungry coyotes to snakes, spiders and scorpions. Most cats have never had to feed and fend for themselves. It is a tough and cruel existence and most do not make it.
We have a cat who came over our wall a couple of years ago. She was so thin, almost hairless from
a bad diet and she was hurt. At first she would not let me near her and ran with pain, if I tried. I started feeding her, because I did not want her to die in our yard and she was too hurt to leave or hunt. She quickly figured out that the yard was a safe haven. She ate and slept and got better.
Then one day she disappeared. About two weeks later she came back with a hurt paw. She sat at the edge of the elderberry bushes and told me in no uncertain terms that she was very hungry and needed my help. As time went on I kept moving the food closer and closer to the patio. I was recovering from surgery and going out to feed her was a challenge for me.
It was close to the end of the monsoon season and she would hide out under a huge fig tree when it
rained. She let me pet her a little as she got use to me.
One day it was starting to rain so I picked her up, brought her inside and put her in the garage for the storm. When she came out she allowed my husband to sit on the floor and pet her for over an hour. She seemed very content to have his affections, while still being shy of me.
We kept her inside and she picked a spot under/ by some potted plants to rest and recuperate. We discovered her bad paw and got her to the vet. She had been bitten and it required strong intervention with antibiotics.
She is now the queen bee and spoiled rotten. She and our elderly cat got along very well so when he died she really missed him.
Our most recent adoption, a beautiful black shorthair cat, looked like a very thin little black jaguar when he came over the wall early last summer. He saw me at the patio door and told me then and there that he was hungry, so I fed him. He would come early each morning and again in the late afternoon to eat.
When I would go out to do my early morning gardening he would leave and return when I came back inside. Soon he would get up on the wall and watch me do my gardening. When I was not in the garden he would play hunter in the fruit trees. I never did see him catch anything, although he put great effort into trying. After awhile he let me pet him when I fed him.
It was a very hot time of the summer, before the monsoons came, and with his black fur the sun and heat were taking its toll on him. He picked out a favorite shaded spot which I cooled down a bit by freezing recycled juice bottles and putting them into a terry cloth bag which I then placed in his
choosen spot. Unfortunately he was still very weak each afternoon.
Finally just before the fourth of July it was going to storm and he was so exhausted that he let me pick him up and bring him inside. He knew how to behave indoors, but he was a very A type personality and had raging hormones. Because of his aggressive attitude towards our other cat she wanted no part of him.
It just so happened that our vet was away on vacation so we had to wait for him to return. July was a long and trying month.
The new cat was very affectionate when alone with us, but we had to keep the two cats separate from each other. We would take turns with who was to sleep in which bedroom with which cat. After the vet visit, in early August, we thought our problems were solved because we had the new cat neutered. This was not the case and it took several more months to have him settle down.
The training of our new cat has been an exercise in great patience and tender care. Things have finally taken a great turn for the better and the two cats are becoming better and better with each other. Yes, it has been worth it. He is a loving and constant delight. Now if we could just get him to sleep in until day light!
