Goodbye Orange Cat (!!!!!)

As simple as that... goodbye to the stray orange cat who has tormented me for the past year.

I had the little cat bed inside of the cat-crate, both sitting on the lounge chair out on the porch. Three times this morning, as the orange cat was curled up inside it, I went out on the porch to close the door of the crate. Smart cat, that one.... as soon as I set one foot on the porch, the orange cat jumped out of the cat bed and sat down on the edge of the lounge chair. When I went back into the house, back he went to curl up in his little bed. It was as if he knew my plan to catch him.

And then, along came nearby friend C... she parked in the driveway, walked up the porch steps, saw the orange cat curled up in the bed inside of the cat crate... he watched her walking across the porch, and he also watched her as she quietly shut the door of the cat crate and locked it. As simple as that. I'd been trying to catch that damn cat for nearly a year and a half and she did it within half a minute.

Into the house came C.... and said the orange cat was inside the crate.  We had all just talked about that stupid cat at yesterday's Waldorf Wednesday tea party.... and there he was now, confined inside of that crate and ready for travel.

That early in the morning, the shelter here isn't open.... they don't open till nearly noon. I wasn't about to leave that cat in the crate from 8:00 till noon. Plus, that large crate doesn't even fit into my car, and my husband isn't home with his bigger car. I asked C if she would drive me to the Lake to release that orange cat.

I absolutely hate when people re-locate cats and dogs that way... and I'm guessing that the orange cat had been re-located onto our property that very same way, by someone who had grown tired of his scratching and biting. After yesterday's episode of him scratching me five times in less than three seconds, my patience with that cat had worn very thin, to the point of non-existence.

So off we went, C and I, with the orange cat in the back of her car, which is much larger than my two-seater car that couldn't ever hold that big cat crate.  Down the highway we went towards the town with the Lake....... and we made a turn onto a long road with little houses here and there.... and we chose a spot with three houses that all had sheds that the orange cat could sleep under, and trees he could climb, and there weren't any dogs in the yards.

Opened up the back of C's car, opened up that crate, and out ran the orange cat... and I watched him running towards the woods surrounding the little houses. Out of my life, and into someone else's, and even though I've always despised people who do that, I just felt that I had no other choice with that blasted cat.

The orange cat had a long run at our home, more than a year.... and in all that time, I made sure he had an on-going supply of Meow Mix, plus a warm place to sleep. And you would think, after all of these months, he would have learned some manners. I would have kept him forever, taken him to the vet for shots and fixing, and given him a proper name. But that orange cat just wouldn't learn good cat-behavior, so I'm not at all sorry for what I did with him this morning.

The porch is once again a safe haven for our own two outside cats. No more orange cat terrorizing them or disrupting their porch-time.  Happy day. Oh my goodness, happy day!!!!!!!!  And I truly hope the orange cat finds a good soul over there by the Lake who will give him Meow Mix... and I'm hoping beyond hope that he doesn't scratch and bite the hand of someone else who may be a good shot with a rifle and end his bad behavior forever.

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you gonna miss me?

No. Definitely not. I'm already glad that you're gone.