Orange cat: 1 -- Raccoon: 0

Well, the orange/white stray cat is back on the porch, but I haven't seen that huge raccoon.  The orange stray doesn't have any marks on him, and he doesn't seem to be missing any fur, so my guess is that he out-ran that raccoon the other night.

One thing is for certain... we've got to get rid of this orange/white stray.  Our formerly-outside cat Gatsby, who now prefers the safety of the house, wants to come inside before it even gets dark. He's been sleeping in the house anyway because of the cold weather we've had, but now that the Texas weather gods have given us warmer temperatures, Gatsby isn't even tempted to stay outside at night anymore.

In addition to that, last night that blasted stray got hold of my leg and gave me a tiny bite.  He was sitting out there just as nice as you please, meowing and meowing to me, and I made the mistake of walking away from him too fast. Next thing I knew, he had pushed himself into my shin, with the intention of a male cat's "love bite," which they will do to female cats that they're interested in. Well, lucky me... this orange/white stray thinks I'm the cat's meow. (How's that for an artful pun?)

I've tried to get that cat into the catch/release crate, but he won't go near it.  Which tells me that he's been caught in one of those before and he knows if he gets into that crate, he'll be relocated.  And I think he likes our porch and the never-ending supply of Meow Mix out there.

Now we go to Plan B.  I'm not leaving food out there all night for that stray, because the cat food has been attracting both possums and raccoons, neither of which I want on the porch.  Instead of the catch/release crate, I've been putting the bowl of cat food into one of the cat-carriers.  Each time the orange stray takes some food, I go out there and move that food dish further back into the carrier. I will try to get that dish all the way to the back of the carrier, with hopes that the cat will feel safe going in there to eat..... and then I can just close the little door while he's crunching the Meow Mix.  Then off to the shelter we'll go, and hopefully this cat will find another home.