Stowaway!

[David M]

Originally Posted by Knottygirlz

Funny thing about our neighborhood...people seem to move and think nothing of leaving their animals behind - particularly cats. Every spring at least one finds it's way to our house. Some we are able to take to a friend's farm, some we have to take to the SPCA because they have been so badly abused they are too ill to survive. One we adopted and now there is this one....he or she is probably going to be a farm cat come fall....How do we know he doesn't belong to someone? He is all fir...otherwise skin and bones and he eats like it is his last meal...like he has not seen foodfora longtime......

Cats are pretty sensitive animals. More so than us humans take them for. Cats do not like changes in their lives and know that when people start taking furniture out of their house and totally disrupting their world that it might be time to take off. Yes it is wrong to abandon animals that for all their lives have been dependent on you in a number of different ways. Sometimes though, cats just take off when their world gets turned upside down and quite often it is not the owners fault.

We recently had a cat adopt us. He was a skinny little thing and it was difficult to decide if we should start feeding him. Because you know what happens once you start feeding a stray. Anyway, I had a softspot for him because he was so affectionate and I eventually broke down and started feeding him.

One day about a month later, the owners of the cat happened to walk by the front of the house and saw him out on the front porch while I was out there. They said "Grestsky??!! .....that's our cat!" I was just as surprised and offered immediately to give them their cat back. They though ultimately decided to do what they believed is best for the cat which was to let me keep him. I was happy about that because he is a sweet cat and I was already becoming attached to him as well. Funny thing about this though...he had been gone for 4 months and the owners lived about about a mile away! He survived on his own for that long! He does have a few wild instincts which he probably reverted to while being on his own for that long, but he is gradually becoming more civilized inside the house. He is a solid grey British shorthair that I uncleverly call "Grey"...the name just fits.

David

[Little Otter]

Personally i like cats (dogs to i have twelve cats and 2 dogs at my house) animals are good to have because they will stay with you after every one else deserts you. "just don't let it try to fish off the boat."