First of all calm down! Don’t let the title of this blog cause you any concern. This blog does not contain subject matter similar to that found in the popular book from a few years back titled, “Fifty Shades of Gray” Hopefully that won’t disappoint too many of you. 🙂
The latest ‘shade of gray’ just about gave me a heart attack this afternoon as I entered our garage and the garbage can appeared to explode as a gray blur erupted from beneath the piles of assorted waste and escaped out the open garage door. I knew immediately what it was.
I first saw this feral cat this spring when it trotted across our patio. It was obvious that it was a female cat that was nursing kittens. My heart went out to it immediately and I began leaving cat food in a dish next to our garage.
The cat food was several years old and left over from the last feral cat that had visited our hobby farm. I know what crackers taste like when they have been sitting around that long so I was surprised to see the dish emptied very quickly each day. But we are dealing with a starving cat here so stale cat food is probably the least of the cat’s worries.
Now for you who don’t know, a feral cat is basically a wild animal. Often born in the wild or having spent little time in a domesticated situation. This summer I was visiting with a very old farmer and I was telling him about the gray intruder and he exclaimed, “Once a feral cat always a feral cat.” With his sixty years of farming experience and the opportunity over those years to view feral cats I believed him.
Over the years we have been visited by feral cats none of which we were able to tame. Four of them come to mind and all four of them were varying shades of gray. I’d prefer a black and white cat, a tiger colored cat or a calico colored cat. But gray was all we got.
As I think about it gray was probably the safest color as it blended in well with the habitat. The black and white, tiger colored and calico colored cats were too visible and became lunch for such things as hawks, eagles or coyotes.
Our visiting cat enjoyed several days of free cat food. Then one morning as we were returning to our house the gray cat ran across the road carrying a large object in her mouth. Upon closer scrutiny we realized she was carrying a half grown kitten. She was moving her family to our house.
We have a shed behind our house that sits on large timbers and the gray cat set up house keeping underneath the shed.
We know very little about the family. I glimpsed the kitten one time before it scurried into the tall grass. I have only caught the mother cat feeding at the dish twice and both times she sprinted to the safety of her leaf lined shed basement.
I have purchased a fresh bag of cat food and winter is fast approaching so I’m assuming we will be entertaining feline visitors for at least the winter months. Perhaps by spring I will manage to give the cat a gentle pat on the head. I will do that cautiously, however, as feral cats are speedy scratchers and biters!
As they say this is not our ‘first rodeo’ when it comes to caring for visiting wild cats nor will it probably be our last.
The first gray cat to visit us was about the ugliest creature I had ever seen. About ten years ago it came wandering into our yard. It was a gray, angora cat. He would have lost a couple pounds had I been able to get close enough to untangle the cockleburs and burdock seeds matted into his long gray hair. His ears were barely present as the freezing winters and numerous battles with other tomcats had taken their tolls.
We became ‘almost’ friends as I would approach him as he ate cat food out of the dish and I was finally able to rub his back gently. I could feel the scars through his long hair, scars that resulted from years of doing battle with a variety of foes. Even his tail was battle scarred as the tip was bent at a forty-five degree angle.
Our friendship seemed to be blossoming and then he was gone and he never returned. Probably his nine lives had been used up. I missed him.
Satan came to stay with us briefly. He was a tiger striped gray beauty but he had one fault. After cleaning the food out of his dish he needed to have dessert. So he plopped himself under the birdfeeder and with his tail twitching he would look upward and be ever ready to snag a songbird that ventured too close.
Satan and I had a parting of ways. Let’s just say he might have ended his earthly days without enjoying the normal nine lives! 🙁 I think you get the drift.
And then there was Fuzz Ball. I wrote a blog about Fuzz Ball several years ago. He was the first schizophrenic cat that I have had to deal with. We became close buddies until he decided to attack me with his sharp claws.
I would call him at feeding time and he would come running and begin eating the cat food. I was able to stroke his back and he responded by humping his back like a normal cat. Then he would rub his body against my legs and almost begin purring. I was beginning to think the “once a feral cat always a feral cat” theory was going to be discounted.
Then I put my hand down in front of him to pet him and with lightning speed he ripped gashes in my hand. Scars still remain on my right hand.
When spring arrived he left our yard to go in search of female companionship and he never returned. Later a school bus driver told me a body of a cat matching that description was seen flattened on the highway a mile from our house.
I sooth my sadness by telling myself “I bet Fuzz Ball was on his way back to our house to fill up on his favorite cat food.” We will never know and my right hand was actually better off that Fuzz Ball never returned.
So that’s the history of the “four shades of gray”. The story is not over yet as a mother cat and perhaps a single offspring are spending the winter under our shed. Maybe they will be the subject of a later blog.
I’m sure feral cats will continue to make their appearances as the years go by and that’s fine with me. Unless the next cat is of a larger variety. Can you say ‘Mountain Lion’?
If that happens it will be farewell hobby farm and time to check out a condo in town! 🙂
Until next time.
