Hombre

I still miss Hombre. He was such an interesting kitty who I only knew for a short time and who I still mourn. Hombre was one of our outside cats that we "inherited". For the longest time, we would catch occasional glimpses of him, but he never wanted us humans to bother him. Or so we thought. We named him Hombre because he was a big, rough and tough looking dude who always had scrapes and scratches from his daily and nightly activities in the wild. He would come around to eat and then saunter off after getting his fill. He was never sociable, and clearly never had had any human interaction. But I continued to talk to him while he visited our back steps to eat. He would look at me with the most soulful eyes, and then off he would go again. I would never be sure when the next would be that I'd see him again. He was always such a raggedy mess and continued to shy away from me. Until late last spring. He began to realize that I wasn't a monster, and he started hanging around a little longer and didn't run off as soon as I got close. He eventually let me lightly stroke his scraggly big head. And he grew fonder and fonder of my attention to him, to the point where I was picking him up and cleaning his scratches. He became such a lover, but he would always retreat back to the great unknown and come back looking his normal rough and tumble self. But he grew to depend on me, and I grew to love him more every day. Because he was such a wanderer, I never knew when I would see him next, especially with everyone's busy schedules. But I was finally able to schedule his vet visit as it coordinated with being able to catch him and put him in the garage kennel for a couple of days prior to the vet visit. My intention was to have him neutered and given his shots and any medications necessary for his constant scrapes and sores (the back of his left ear had a sore - presumably from a fight - that just would not heal). The first thing that our vet does is test each cat for feline leukemia. It's a fatal disease and is very contagious. It broke my heart to hear that he tested positive. It only made sense to euthanize him to avoid contaminating any of the other cats. I cried for two days afterward, and I still think about him months later. Just as he was taken from me, we had started to bond and I knew that he knew that he could rely on me. Which makes me feel like I betrayed him a little bit. Hopefully, in the end he knew he was loved.

2/19/09 - There's something very comforting about opening up the back door first thing in the morning and seeing all my babies. Especially when the night has been particularly cold - like last night - I always look forward to seeing them in the morning, as it gives me the assurance that they somehow huddled together and kept each other warm. And they too have equal assurance that food is coming, along with a fresh bowl of warm water to replace the water that had frozen over night. They'll enjoy today's sunshine.

My First Entry - A little about myself and my many cats

No, I'm not a crazy cat lady. I just happen to love cats, and have found myself - not by conscious choice - caring for a multitude of the little darlings that had set up residence in the barn behind our house that we moved into a couple of years ago. I guess the cats came with the house, but I don't recall seeing that clause in the mortgage agreement! In addition to the 25 or so outside, I have four indoor cats who also keep me busy. Cats are mysterious, elusive, enigmatic and fascinating creatures. Each and every one of them has a distinct personality. The only time I did not live with a cat in all of my 49 years was as a college student living in the dorm. And I missed my cat horribly, who was still living at home with my parents. His name was Spike. My dad used to write me letters "from Spike" when I was in college. I still have those letters.

My dad is a retired veterinarian, so animals have always been a part of my life. I am a genuine lover of creatures of every species, but it's the cat species that has me so consumed these days. We do have a dog, whom we love, but boy, do we have cats!

My ongoing project over the last several months and in the months ahead has been and continues to be getting each of my outside cats spayed or neutered, along with their immunizations to keep them healthy to continue living outside. What a project it has been! I have two categories of outside cats:

A. The docile and friendly cats who enjoy human interaction, including being petted and held.
B. The rest of the bunch who would rather I just disappear, as long as they have enough food and water. In other words, they don't wish to be touched.

As you can imagine, Group B has been the most challenging in capturing so that I can bring them to the vet for their "sexual alteration". But my goal is to have this project completed this spring before I hear the tiny little mews of brand new babies.

I've had a lot of joys and also some sadness with my brood, and for anyone who for whatever reason finds this interesting, or is reading out of sheer boredom, I'd like to share some of it. First of all, names:

My inside cats/household pets:

Lola - long haired gray female
Wilbur - short hair cream male
Lucy - short hair tan female
Priscilla - short hair calico/gray tabby female

Group A:

Rose - the matriarch
Fred - the patriarch
Ethyl - the maternal caregiver
Wendy - dainty and petite
Della - the mischief maker
Bonnie - the lover
Betty - the wanderer

Group B:

A myriad of others who won't let me close enough to determine their gender, but who are always around and know they can depend on me to take care of their needs. I've named some of them based solely upon whether they look like a boy or a girl to me, but I've been wrong before.

That's all for now!