Thanks, donna
We care for the feral cats in our neighborhood. With always having food out for the feral cats, sometimes neighbor cats show up, and often any lost or abandoned cats as well. When lost or abandoned tame cats show up I always take them to the Humane Society to get them homes. This usually works out very well. Well, this new guy showed up (we call him "Queso") and I thought he was a neighbors cat because right from the very first night I knew he wasn't feral. He is not scared of people, he comes very close to me and always has and from the very first night I saw him he walked right up to me and stood by the bowl while I filled it. He's quite a talker, he meows all the time. He even tries to come in our house! Definitely not feral cat behavior, so since he's not feral, there is no need to make him live that life and it would be better if he found a home. So, I caught him and took him directly to the Boulder Humane Society to find him a home. Happy ending to the story? No, unfortunately.
I tracked him on the BVHS website, as I always do, and after a few days I saw that they had a new picture of him up and his ears were down, not looking very tame. I called and asked what was going on with him. They said he was still too scared to really be handled much. His five days on the "found" list were going to be up the next day and they were going to euthanize him as they deemed him unadoptable (if a cat can't be petted right away they are unadoptable at a shelter). I asked if, instead, I could bring him back home here to live with us and our feral cats. It wasn't my first choice for him, since he isn't feral, but I wanted to save his life. They said yes, so they tested him and neutered him and I brought him back. After I released him I figured he had gone back to wherever he had come from because I didn't see him for about a week. Then he came back, and he came back in a big way. He moved into our yard full-time. After he moved in he seemed to think of this as his house and us as his people, and our formerly-feral-mostly-indoor-cat-who-still-goes-outside as his "best friend" (in Queso's opinion, not necessarily our cats opinion).
That would be all well and fine except for one thing - he is overly protective of his new home. He has chased off every one of the truly feral cats that we care for to the point that most of them stopped coming by. We have some very small, meek ones here that are easily scared off and easily hurt when attacked. This breaks my heart. These cats truly are feral, which means they have no other options than to live in the streets and they depend on me and the food and care I have provided them for years. I couldn't stand by and watch what Queso was doing. There was a whole week when nobody even came by and TRIED to eat as they were all just scared or sick of it. I am a firm believer in the idea of "to that which you tame, you owe your life" and these cats' health and happiness and safety are my responsibility. Like I said, and I want to stress this again, Queso is a "friendly" cat to us people, and to our cat Praline, but he is not nice to these other cats. The fact that he doesn't fight with our cat and he is friendly to us just really makes me believe that the reason he chases them off and fights with them is just because he was protecting his new home from "outsiders". That just can't happen though, so I caught him and attempted to find another place for him. I kept him in a large dog-crate in our garage for five days while I was trying to find someone to take him in. I also thought that I could try taming him while he was in the cage in the garage. That did not work out well for him. He hurt himself trying to get out of the crate, and it was clear that instead of becoming more tame, it was making him angry, depressed and less likely to want to be petted. My attempts at petting him while he was in the crate in the garage were met with mixed reviews - sometimes he would come up and gently sniff my fingers and even let me pet him for a second, other times he would swat at me. I even got him to play a few times with a feather-on-a-string toy I made for him. He seemed to enjoy that, but he seemed to get more angry and depressed with each passing day. Finally, on day five we found a man who was willing to take him in and give him a chance.
This man has lots of experience doing this, so therefore I thought he understood that these things take time and he was willing to give Queso that time. However, Queso has now been at his house only for about 10 days and the man is giving up on him. He is unable to pet him yet. I'm not surprised, as I didn't expect Queso to become a lap cat overnight, but this man is not willing to try with him any longer for some reason and wants me to come get him. I don't know where to take him or what to do with him when I do. Queso is out of options. There are no rescues in town that will take him and offer him a foster home and time to become socialized, and I do believe I've called every single one. I can't keep him in our house because we simply have no room. Coming back here and living in a cage in the garage is out of the question as well, since that was clearly doing him more harm than good. There is no other place for him, so now I am pleading to you, the general public, to see if you or anyone you know might be willing and/or able to help him find his place in the world.
Thank you for taking the time to read this story about Queso. I know it's long, but I feel I have to explain him and his situation fully so that you understand what you are getting in to if you offer to help him. He needs time and patience. It might take several weeks or even a month or more before you would be able to pet him. In the meantime he needs someone who will spend as much time with him as possible, just talking sweetly to him, maybe playing with him if he is willing, and just basically being there so that he would become used to you and learn to trust you. This isn't easy work, but if you have a spare room in your house and space in your heart for him, it would surely be very rewarding. He needs to be kept inside, not in a cage, and in a secure room where he can't get outside or he will surely run away and be lost and in danger. He's down to euthanasia or a "barn cat" program as his last options if I can't find anyone here that is willing and able to help him. This makes me so very sad, as he deserves so much more than that. He is a good, sweet, cute and healthy cat that deserves a chance at a better life. I don't want him to die, and I don't think the barn cat program is appropriate for him either. I have nowhere else to take him though. Please let me know as quickly as possible if you can help. E-mail me first, and if it looks like you can help him I can provide you my telephone number and we can talk about him some more.
Unless you have stellar references from either a rescue group that you have worked with before or a veterinarian or something like that, I will ask for a $25 adoption fee just to keep away the people that take free cats to sell to laboratories. I have spent more than that on him anyway, getting him neutered and tested, so it isn't about the money to me, just about his safety. I hope you understand. If you are willing to take him I would also like to stay in touch to see how he is doing in the future. Thank you for your time. Here's a video of him playing in the cage in our garage. The marks on either side of his nose are from where he hurt himself trying to push through the bars on the cage to get out - they should be healed up and gone by now, although I haven't seen him in ten days so I'm not sure. Still, even with his wounds, you can see what an adorable boy he is. Thank you again for taking the time to read this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msJCfoD0Gsk
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