Nice! Glad you got the surgery done.

I'm sooooooooooooo happy the little girl has a human friend! Thank you!!!

Excellent news! Is that her name? Shadow? Or is it Shadow Cat? "Doppelganger" sounds like she might be gone by the time you finish calling her, though it goes well with Gargoyle. :)

plllog, my kids want to call her Ghoul, to match Gargoyle. What an awful name! I think I'll call her Shadow Cat, if she stays around once we release her.

sleeperblues, socks, and nicole, thank you!

That is so kind of you. A lot of people would have trapped her and taken her to the pound, where she would have been put down. Out of sight....out of mind. I like the name Shadow Cat. My daughter brought me a cat that had been abandoned at the apartments where she lived. She looks like a Maine coon cat in some ways. They called her "O Cat". I need to find out why. I named her Cleo. I had her spayed too. Since I work with the shelter, they will often give me a spot if they have extras for spays and neuters.

How good of you to express your love by caring for these kitties! There are still so many cruel people in this world - it makes your efforts shine. (As a side note - the latest issue of Smithsonian has a wonderful article on Snow Leopards - speaking of beautiful cats!)

The Shadow Cat is back, ensconced in the tool room, but .. I found out it's a male cat. I thought it was a female--the vet tech checked and confirmed that it was female. When I went to pick it up this morning she said it was a male, so it was half the price of a spay. Yay. At least we don't have to come up with a new name.

Our
place is part of what used to be a dairy farm, so people are in the
habit of dropping off unwanted animals--I think they see the barn and
think it's OK. We're about 1/4 mile from a neighbor on one side, so the
no-good cowards can throw the poor things out, without being detected.

marilyn, thank you, I know you do the same, on a much larger scale.

Thank
you, pink_warm_mama_1. I've expressed my feelings about the kind of
people who push their unwanted animals off on someone else. The one who
abandoned the tiny kittens is the lowest on the pond scum scale.

I raised six orphans this year and all have been weaned for a long time. I just noticed that one of them, Ben, has started nursing my dog, Tricia. This is the same dog that raised the baby raccoon a couple of years ago.

Mama Goose, I'm so glad these felines have found a loving home with you. I do think a picture is in order, don't you?

Marilyn, I love that nursing picture.

marilyn, what a sweet picture!

donna, he's still hiding, as injured and sick animals usually do . As soon as I can coax him out, I'll put him and Gargoyle together for a picture (if I can corral them both ;).

Here's a picture of Shadow Cat, on his favorite perch in the tool room. I don't think he's up to a family pic yet, but he did let me pet him for quite a while this evening.

He is a beauty!

He's very pretty. Looks like my Cloud, except Cloud had to have his tail amputated. He was found on a feeder road by the freeway, and a car had bumped him and ran over his tail.

What a beautiful boy he is!

Thank you all! He seems to have decided that we are trustworthy, and is actually flexing into the stroking, and playing with a string. Gargoyle isn't behaving well, though--I brought her in to see him, and she hissed and spit. I'd observed them together on the front porch, so I thought they'd get along better. I guess she resents his occupying 'her' room--where we kept her for a week after she was spayed. Grandson took her up to his room for a while to show her that she's still his favorite. ;)

Shadow is beautiful and is so lucky to have found you. Thank you for your kindness to animals. We need more people like you.

Thank you, lily. :)

I let Shadow Cat go outside this morning. It's been a week since his trip to the vet, and I found him sitting in the window, looking longingly at the back yard. He and I had become friends--he'd started to come to me for petting and treats, but I think he will probably revert to his feral ways.

Gargoyle is still being a grouch. When she heard the door open, she ran to investigate, and gave Shadow another hiss and smack when he tried to touch noses. :[

I doubt he will revert to his feral ways. Once a cat learns that you mean no harm to him and even associate you with petting and food.....they are usually more than happy to forget being feral. Especially young cats. Older cats don't take to people quite so well. At least this has been my experience with the ferals that I adopted. I can pet most of them while they are eating and one even decided she wanted to be a part time house cat but they never got particularly tame....but they were all older cats when they came here.

We rescued a feral and her two kittens back in 2001, when she was about 2 or 3 years old, according to the vet. He also said since she was definitely feral instead of a stray, and also older, she would likely never come around and always be wild. Well, he was wrong, she is still with us and, over the years, has become a lap sitter and generally affectionate kitty. She also wants nothing to do with going outside, she has been perfectly content to be indoors only. She is still more skittish than the others, hides when people come over, but other than that she is "normal". :)

I'll be happy if he continues to be friendly. We have a 'semi-feral' female that I started feeding when I heard her pitiful cries. I put out food, and eventually moved it closer and closer to the group pans, until she was comfortable coming to eat while we were there. She follows me around outside now, will occasionally rub my ankles and let me pet her, but doesn't want to be held, or even approached.

One thing I noticed about Shadow, is that he stayed hidden almost all day, and came out only at night. He panicked if I tried to take him to any other room in the house. Our other cats snooze some during the day, but they are very active and alert all day long. Shadow's hiding might have been part of his survival instinct, after having been 'injured.' If I'd been inclined to keep him inside I think he would have become much more tame and friendly, but one of my daughters is allergic to cats.