Cats

My husband and I adopted two cats over our years together and we are presently caring for four. Two of these cats are the cats that we adopted and brought into our home and our lives. They are wonderful cats. They had hard lives before we brought them in, but they now have an easy life. The other two cats are living outside. They wander into our yard and we feed them. One of them is very skittish. She (I am guessing, that the cat is a she), is a very beautiful black cat. We put out the food for her and she watches for us to put out the food, comes down and eats. Then she runs off if we even try to get close to her. She is getting used to my opening the door while she is out there, but if I step out onto the porch, she runs. The other cat, is an orange tabby. He has been fixed, still has his claws and is very nervous about living outside. He comes down and eats at the bowl of food we have put out and if I could just catch him when the pound is open, he would be at the pound looking for a family who would care for him and give him a good life. He is a very nice cat. He will let me pet him, he will come to me when I call for him, but if he is alone outside, he is very nervous. He just twitches.

Now for the soapbox.

I really dislike it when people get an animal and then when it becomes an inconvenience they just dump it outside of someone else's house. We have taken on all the responsibility we can handle. We cannot have any more cats in our house. We have three children and two cats. That is more than enough for us. It is a terrible thing to do to a cat. They have a harder time living in the outdoors than if they are brought into a house and cared for. When we were visiting our cousins, they were also caring for two cats that someone had dumped on their property. These cats that are being cared for by us and our cousins, are lucky. But when winter comes they need to be in someone's home. Winter is very hard on cats. It is very hard on dogs. You need to care for animals when you make that commitment.

Now, I understand that sometimes people go through hard financial times, but when that happens take the animal to the pound. They will find the animal a new home. Just don't dump them on the side of the road. I worry daily about the cats I am caring for, because there are lots of cars driving around us. I worry that one of them is going to get hit and my children will find it and be devastated.

Now to go see if I can catch the orange tabby. The pound will open in about 4 hours.

Just a note: We heard after dropping the cat off at the pound, he was someone's pet. They were going through a messy divorce and the ex threw the cat out. He was fortunate. He came to my house and we were able to get him back to his mom. Granted we did this by taking him to the pound, but they scanned him and found his tag and called her.