Cat karma.

I don't like what we're doing with this orange/white stray cat, but I realize we have very few choices.   We made sure that cat had food every day during the stretch of frigid weather that we went through, but our aim in that gesture was to make friends with the cat so we could get him to the shelter.

Cats are smarter than you think...... the cat happily ate the Meow Mix, but didn't exactly make friends. I'm convinced that he knew he wouldn't be a 'keeper.'  Proof of that--- the little bite on my leg and the scratches on my husband's hand.

Not being able to pick up that orange cat and put him into a cat-carrier, we resorted to using a catch/release trap which we baited with Meow Mix and Fancy Feast.  "Do I look that stupid to you?" said the orange cat as he walked around the trap and then walked off of our porch. No matter how many times I set up that release-trap, the orange cat ignored it. Not even cooked bacon would lure him into it.

Trying to keep him away from the porch, and away from our own outside cats, my husband blasted an air-horn towards the orange cat when he came up on the porch looking for cat food this week.  Cats have very sensitive ears.... and those air-horn blasts must have hurt his hearing because he ran off the porch towards the barn and propelled himself into the back of the barn without breaking stride.

It has now been nearly a week that the orange stray has licked his paws on our back porch after his meal of Meow Mix.  I feel guilty that he may be going hungry... I feel badly that we've assaulted him with loud noises, and if there's a Cat God out there in the universe, I'm certainly doomed for creating havoc in the life of this particular stray cat.

We just cannot have another male cat around this house, plain and simple. When the Cat God comes to see me at the end of my days, I will have a lot of explaining to do concerning this orange/white stray.