The cat through the looking glass....

The orange/white stray cat has come back... and not only is it back, but it has been sleeping on one of the porch chairs at night, all cuddled up in a cat-blanket just as nice as you please.  I have not fed this stray cat...... but I did try a couple of week ago.  Cans of Fancy Feast, and bowls of Meow Mix.... the orange/white stray turned his nose up at all of it, so I stopped wasting the food out there.  He doesn't look as if he's starving, and chances are he has been feasting on field mice.  If that's the case, then a can of Fancy Feast isn't going to tempt him, and that goes double for Meow Mix.

The stray cat will curl himself on a cat-blanket, in a chair right in front of the windows of the TV room. On the other side of those windows, Sweet Pea and Gatsby will watch his every move from the safety of the TV room, hardly blinking for fear they'll miss something.  Sweet Pea is especially interested, twitching his whiskers and stretching his neck as far out from his body as it will go. Considering that Sweet Pea has never met anyone or anything that he hasn't liked, this doesn't surprise me.

Gatsby, however, is quite annoyed that yet another stray cat has dared to touch a paw to Gatsby-Land.  Being very male, and very territorial, Gatsby has no patience with any of the stray cats that have found their way to our porch.  After a few tentative growls and low meows, Gatsby will eventually turn into a bull and ram himself into the stay cat, after first getting a good running start from the other end of the porch.  Such actions have resulted in a few puncture wounds on the top of Gatsby's head, but he will usually hide under the porch steps or the cottage until he has cleaned away the blood.  Ever the gentleman, Gatsby doesn't like to draw attention to himself, especially when his own blood has been shed.

My husband went out on the porch last night to say hello to the orange/white stray.... and wonder of wonders, the stray let my husband pet his orange/white head.  This stray cat is particularly vocal, letting everyone in the house know when he's out on the porch with loud and very sad-sounding meows.  You would think that after not taking any food that's been offered him, he would have moved on to another house, to another porch.... and possibly find one that doesn't already have two outside cats and one inside cat?!

I have not given this orange/white cat a name...... nor do we intend to keep him........ I don't care how many field mice he has eaten, I don't care how sad his meows sound, and I don't care how cute he is.  I'm not starting off a new year with a new cat.