Herding Cats

 The cats don't always go where I want them to. This morning Natalie walked right in the house when I opened the back door. She's a feral and does not belong in the house. She was both curious and scared. PJ, a house cat, was busy sniffing her whole body as she poked her way to the book shelves and under a chair. 

I had a moment of indecision about my best course of action. Should I leave the back door open for her to exit or close it to keep other cats from getting in. Dogs are in an adjoining room on the other side of a gate. A wandering feral cat could meet it's end or have an expensive veterinary trip if an encounter with the dogs didn't go well. I left the door open enough for an exit and herded Natalie out as she tried to evade PJ's sniffs.

I fed the cats. It can be difficult to walk out the back door to the feeding area without stepping on or tripping over a cat. Over time the feeding area has shifted and the cats are fed inside the fenced yard now.  With that change the cats now gather on the patio to wait for me as breakfast time approaches. As I walk out the door twenty cats advance towards me. Smokey, Terry, Nixon, and Jeremy Clarkson all rub against my shins as I carefully shuffle through the crowd towards the food bowls. Their tails held up in greeting, we walk across the lawn to the bowls. Rita bats at the face of her sister Minnie and pushes Nora away from the small bowl that I fill first. At the large bowls, Smokey supervises and keeps everyone in line. He shifts from one bowl to the other having a sample and intervening if a cat is out of line. Thomas sits back a few feet away observing, He will eat his share when the others are done. If Mr Lee (Bruce) approaches to eat with the colony cats, Smokey or Thomas will tell him to back off and wait. If Anita makes an appearance nobody will intervene. She has made it clear that she will take what she wants uninterrupted or someone is going to get hurt.

 There's a second feeding area by the cul de sac. A different group of cats eat there. There's Pablo's family - Dora and Walter, Mr Boot, Tanya, Allie. Cats from the neighbor yard; Fluffy, Eastside, and Ranger. Cats that have no home and are hungry enough to occasionally expose themselves; Pedro, Sarah, Petunia, James, and Schwartz (Binx). Smokey and Thomas follow me to the second feeding area. They eat and observe, occasionally forcing the retreat of an undesirable stray. Jeremy Clarkson follows me closely to every bowl. He eats a bit, then seeks attention - a rub on his head, a stroke from his shoulders to tail. I wonder about his origin and don't know if there's another place where he is considered at home. He was absent for a long time and had lost considerable weight upon return. I expect that he was abandoned or lost when a family moved away.

After the cats finished eating, I took Brad Pit, the dog that I rescued from imminent dumping a year ago, for a walk round the yard. He has killed two cats in encounters where they were spooked by other things and drew out his predatory instinct. Our dogs have a fenced area separate from the cats. Most of the cats know to stay out of it. Minnie is the exception. She likes to sit on the porch rail and watch the birds at our feeder. I check for her before letting Brad free in the yard. This morning as I was about to let Brad off the leash, I saw Minnie sitting on the back side of the porch railing. I called to her. She sat there glaring at me, miffed that I was interrupting her bird watching. I thought to throw Brad's ball at her to scare her away, but realized that would only incite bad attention from Brad. To get Minnie out of the dog yard I eventually put Brad back in the house and came back out with a spray bottle of water. A few shots at Minnie and she finally retreated back to the safe zone and Brad was allowed to roam freely in his yard.

I have a lot to catch up on and I'll get to that in a future post.