Years ago I graduated college and moved to a small town in the low foothills of California's Sierra Nevada mountains to start my first post-college job. I found a small house to rent and was ready to start my new life. One of the first things I purchased for my new home was a trash can. It was a great trash can; I kept it on the driveway at the side of the house and brought it out to the curb once a week on trash collection day. On one trash collection day, I came home from work and the lid to my trash can was missing. Oh well, no big deal I could get by without a lid. For many, many months I used the trash can without a lid with no problems. But one day I took some trash to the can and noticed that something had been rummaging in the can. All the food-related trash was strewn about all around the driveway. Oh great, the raccoons have been getting into the can. I had never really saw any raccons around the neighborhood, but I was sure some were in the vicinity. For the next couple of weeks, the can was raided about every other day or so. I needed to find these raccoons and encourage them to move on to somewhere else. Then one Saturday evening, I heard the dog barking excitedly in the backyard. I ran outside and observed the dog digging furiously trying to get under the back porch. All right, we have finally found the racoons. I grabbed a flashlight and kneeled down to look under the porch. Nope, no raccoons; in fact I could not see anything under the porch.
About the same time all this was going on, I had noticed that there was a new cat in the neighborhood. It was a small, black cat; an older kitten really. It seemed to enjoy sitting on my fence or laying in the grass on my front lawn. The cat was really nervous and would run away when I open the front door, or when it noticed me watching it through the window. I would see the cat a few times a week, and it always ran away. But one day, I opened my front door and saw the cat on my lawn. This time the cat did not run away, so I shouted "Hi Kitty". The cat got up and started limping over to me on three legs, with one of the front legs sticking straight out. The cat limped all the way to my front porch and flopped down at my feet. I looked down and noticed that the cat had one leg stock in its flea collar. I leaned over to remove the flea collar and free the stuck leg. The flea collar was old and brittle and I needed to cut it off. While petting the cat to reassure it that I was helping, I noticed that it was very skinny; just skin and bones. When I removed the flea collar, I observed sores on both the cat's neck and front leg; presumably resulting from the cat's attempts to free its leg. I went inside my home and got some antibiotic ointment to apply to the raw areas. The cat started to purr and seemed to really appreciate the attention. I'm not a cat person, but this seemed like a nice enough cat.
I started to feel sorry for this cat and wanted to give it something to eat and drink since it was so skinny. I walked to the convenience store on the corner and purchased a very small bag of cat food. When I got home, the cat was still on my front porch. I went inside my home and prepared bowls of food and water for the cat. I put them both on the front porch and went back inside. A few minutes later, I looked out the window and the bowl of food was empty. This was a really small cat and I was surprised that it could eat a big bowl of food so fast. I filled the bowl again, and again the cat ate all the food within a few minutes. I brought the empty bowls back into the house and wished the cat the best in its future endeavors. I knew that the cat might come back for some more food, but I wasn't going to feed it anymore. Like I said, I'm not a cat person.
For the several nights, the cat did come back and would meow outside the window of whatever room I was in. I remember thinking, how does this cat know what room I am in? I would be in the living room watching television and I would hear the cat outside the living room window. I would go to bed and hear the cat outside my bedroom window as I was trying to fall asleep, and again hear it outside the window as I was waking up. After about three nights, my phone rang late one evening. I answered the phone and it was my neighbor asking if there was a way I could get "my cat" to shut-up. I felt a little embarassed and a little angry at the cat. I opened my front door and was about to yell at the cat when this little black furball came flying through the doorway and onto the top of my couch. The cat looked at me with these very happy eyes and started purring very loudly. I left the cat on the couch and went back to bed.
By Lance Forest -
Lance is a working natural resource professional in California's northern Sacramento Valley. He is an avid reader and enjoys freelance writing as a part-time hobby. Mr. Forest's expertise includes natural...
Help with cat fights/new cat?
We have an older cat and got a kitten in October. Both boys and they're both fixed. We kept the kitten in a separate room for a long time and then started gradually letting him out and in the living room in a kitten pen. Now, when the older cat is outside, we let the kitten roam the house. When the older cat comes in the kitten stalks and pounces on him and we have this rolling ball of hissing cats. They do NOT get along. It's been 3 months now and I don?t know how much more gradual we can make it. We don?t wan the kitten stuck in our separate room for most of his life and we don?t want our other cat to feel alienated and not come home due to the fear of the aggressive kitten
Years ago I graduated college and moved to a small town in the low foothills of California's Sierra Nevada mountains to start my first post-college job. I found a small house to rent and was ready to start my new life. One of the first things I purchased for my new home was a trash can. It was a great trash can; I kept it on the driveway at the side of the house and brought it out to the curb once a week on trash collection day. On one trash collection day, I came home from work and the lid to my trash can was missing. Oh well, no big deal I could get by without a lid. For many, many months I used the trash can without a lid with no problems. But one day I took some trash to the can and noticed that something had been rummaging in the can. All the food-related trash was strewn about all around the driveway. Oh great, the raccoons have been getting into the can. I had never really saw any raccons around the neighborhood, but I was sure some were in the vicinity. For the next couple of weeks, the can was raided about every other day or so. I needed to find these raccoons and encourage them to move on to somewhere else. Then one Saturday evening, I heard the dog barking excitedly in the backyard. I ran outside and observed the dog digging furiously trying to get under the back porch. All right, we have finally found the racoons. I grabbed a flashlight and kneeled down to look under the porch. Nope, no raccoons; in fact I could not see anything under the porch.
