Post-Winter Cat Update

Several of you have asked about the stray cats that had taken up residence in our neck of the woods this past summer. Well, we noticed that the cats didn't come and hang out on our deck shortly after Taigen stored our deck furniture and blew the leaves off. We didn't know what had happened to them. Marshall and Shaylen missed them.

In fact, I assumed that they had either died or moved away. When I was talking to my neighbor on the phone in November, she told me that she often saw them in our driveway or meandering in our yard. I guess they were just avoiding the deck. Maybe they got scared away by the leaf blower?

My neighbor was a little concerned that the cats wouldn't make it through the winter. She called the local Humane Society and they assured her that unless the cats were diseased or severely sick, they would take them and try to find good homes for them. Margo was able to capture the smallest one (the one the kids had named Oreo...he has the slight black smudge on his nose). Well, of course he didn't like it and meowed the whole way there. When being taken out, he scratched the worker. She told our neighbor that unless he calmed down, they would put him down. This did not sit well! To make a very long story short, my big-hearted, sweet neighbor managed to get the cat back from them and brought it back to our neighborhood. She decided to set it free &  let "mother nature" take its course through the long, cold winter. Between her and some neighbors a couple of doors down, they were being well-fed and I guess they found warm places to stay.

Well, imagine our surprise the other day when one of the cats was up on our deck and looking in our patio door. The kids got down on their bellies and talked with it through the glass. Oh! Did he rub up against the glass and practically begged them to pet him. So, I let them open the door and lay there and pet him. He loved and loved on them. Shaylen has named him "Patches" (he's pictured here staring in the patio window at Shaylen). We fed him some scraps and he was content to sit there and eat and then sit at the glass door and watch Marshall and Shaylen practice their piano. He's a sweet kitty.

Soon, we saw Oreo (the runt) come up on the deck too. He's a bit skittish with us, but at least we know that the runt made it through the long winter too. He loves sitting there, sunning himself. The cats look extremely healthy and happy, so we are glad.