I am going to refrain from naming him because I don't want to consider him as mine, particularly since there is also a black one that is right on his heels as far as being in need of a home. However, I have gone from simply leaving them whatever Ella and Bubba don't eat to buying food for them, and I'll have a more suitable home built for them by winter, if they should choose to occupy it. It really wouldn't be fair to Ella for me to bring another cat into the house, though. But no, I don't think there's anything whatsoever wrong with doting on cats.
It was only a half serious question. I know plenty of things wrong with myself but loving my pets isn't one of them. Maggie:
I used to be the keeper of the strays in the neighborhood. I'd feed them till they started fighting for dominance then I'd bring certain ones in and feed them and the others couldn't bother them then. I had my share of ones I had to take to get put down or doctored when I could afford. It was a mess though. I feed squirrels now cuz there's no strays here.
None at all? SeniorsOnly members should get together and send you a large box of stray cats. You need something to keep you busy. I've never understood why people think squirrels a nuisance. I have a squirrel that comes to my backyard feeder once a day. He's after sunflower seeds. He's so beautiful and athletic climbing up the pole that I can only shake my head in admiration. For being a caregiver to animals I vote for you for President.
Noooooo don't do that. The animal control people will just trap them and take them away. That's what they did with the stray that latched onto me when I first moved here. I'm ok feeding the squirrels. They amuse me. My rotten neighbor used to live in this side of the duplex. Her dad made these wooden feeders you nail to a tree. Well last summer one rainy day...3 of these fat little guys sat on the feeder all at once and it was wet and had cracked inside. Needless to say it fell off the tree. LOL! I have a habit of looking out first thing in the morning and I see these 3 standing there looking rather alarmed and looking at each other. I open the door and ask "what did you do?" They sprinted half way across the street and watched as I picked it up and proceeded to toss it in the garbage cuz I couldn't fix it. As I'm tossing it I see one run back over to the curb and he's standing there looking at me like "hey...where you going with our dinner plate?" I laughed so hard. I finally found another feeder and some coat hangers in the tree and hung a new one.
I just nearly tripped over Barney in the dark living room. He's black and white and needs more white on him so I can see him better in the dark. I've thought of spray painting him but certain busybodies would probably hassle me for that.
Nice try, but I have only very large lamps that blind me if I turn them on. Seriously though, I have tripped over Barney because he likes to lay right in doorways. It's really my fault because I know he does that. I should further explain that I like the dark and often turn off every light in the house, even nightlights. Yes, I know it's odd.
I have to keep a small light of some kind going at night. I'm getting too unstable in the middle of the night to be wandering the house with no way to see where I'm going. I often have trouble walking a straight line if half asleep. LOL
I'm the same way. I was on the hunt for plug-in emergency lights (that go on when the power goes out), and had a hard time finding some that were not night lights as well. I have a rambler, and cannot sleep if there's the faintest glow of light from a room at the other end of the house. I had the electric company cut off my private dusk-to-dawn light (streetlight) partly to make it darker here. I got so used to being in the middle of nowhere that when I traveled back to work for meetings, I had to buy a blindfold so I could get to sleep in the hotel (too much urban ambient light.)
Not to detract from the stray cat theme of this thread, I bought several motion-activated, battery-operated lights several years ago when Cutie was in her late 20s and having problems with her night vision. As she walked around the house, these little lights would come on and that's all she needed to feel secure as a nocturnal being. Cutie is gone, but the lights still come in handy whenever I get up during the night because I can go pretty much anywhere in the house without having to turn any lights on. They also keep us from stumbling around if the power goes out. Getting back to the theme of this thread, I sat on the steps for a while today and talked to the gray cat. I doubt that he's feral, although he's been on his own for at least a couple of years now. He wouldn't come to me, but he did that thing that cats do when they're trying to show that they're friendly by rolling over on his back and looking at me upside down. I think they know they look cute when they do that. While I was working in the back part of the yard, he was under the planter watching me. He wants to be close but to have an escape route in case I go off on him or something. The black cat that comes around does much the same, although the two are never around at the same time. I am pretty sure that the black cat is a male too, although, from what I see on the cameras, he is awfully nice to a couple of the half-grown kittens that are also out there. Oh, he doesn't let them eat until he has had his fill but he runs any of the other cats away from the bowl, including the gray one. At one time, we had two black cats coming around that were of the same age, probably siblings, but I haven't seen both of them at the same time lately, so I don't know if they are both still around.