Sage and Sashi

Sage is a healthy, freshly vetted and spayed, one-year old female who is looking for an indoor home. She's been staying with me for almost two weeks and will have to go back outside Friday after she gets her spay stitches removed if I can't find her a home. She does not want to go back outside. She is an indoor cat who's quite happy to be back inside after being dumped outside with no regard. She uses her litter box very well, and is sweet, snuggly, and very happy to sit in your lap for hours. She is like a little dog--she comes when I call her; she asks for food and love, and if I talk to her, she answers back. She's very mellow and tolerates unpleasant and invasive medical procedures with no aggression.


She showed up about six weeks ago and started eating here multiple times a day--always looking terrified, haunted, and quite scrawny. Soon, I noticed she was here full time, living in the garage and still eating constantly as if to make up for a long absence of food. I've seen the look and behavior so many times in indoor cats that are suddenly thrust into the cruel brutality of being a street cat. I was trying to make friends with her, but wasn't able to get to her. She was so scared and skittish all the time.

Sashi is an outdoor cat that I've taken care of for three years. I can't get any closer than two feet to him. I've never touched him, but we've spent a lot of time together in proximity, exchanging affectionate looks. He stands at the door and politely asks for food.  I've tried to trap him multiple times through the years, but he's far too savvy for that.  I've assumed that he was altered, because he is so friendly and laid back with other animals. He is good friends with many of the (altered) neighborhood cats. Whenever a new cat shows up, he is quite friendly. He gets along with the opossums and raccoons he shares his space with. I've never seen any aggression from him, so I thought he was neutered. I was wrong.  Two weeks ago, I saw Sashi and Sage copulating in my driveway. I was gutted because a) he IS NOT fixed and is untrappable, and b) kittens were imminent if I couldn't get Sage in time.

He has survived some nasty injuries, probably because I've been able to give him a reliable dose of antibiotics in his food as needed.  He had a wound about a year and a half ago that we really didn't think he would survive. It was a deep gash, that went to the bone behind his left ear. It took over a year and several courses of antibiotics for it to finally close up and heal. He's quite a survivor.

Fortunately, Sage was not nearly as street smart as Sash, and I had her trapped within two days. She was screaming and shaking in the trap, and when I first released her, she was insane with terror. Once I grabbed her and started petting her, she melted, and instantly turned back into the sweet, purring kitten that she was before the outdoor trauma.  Crisis averted, and I'm hoping for a happy ending by keeping this poor girl off the streets. She is not a wanderer.  Some cats will be happy outside; some will absolutely thrive outside; she will do neither--she will survive, with my help, which is the best I can offer right now. She needs a savior.

On a really sad note, the life of a street cat is hard and short--filled with fear, brutality, pain, and violence.  I haven't seen Sashi for two weeks, and the last time I saw him, he had a severe foot wound.  He has, once in the past, disappeared for about two weeks, and he returned home and seemed just fine.  Other than that, he's pretty reliably here--lying in the front garden sunning himself, hanging out on a warming mat in the garage, lying under the yews, eating. He hasn't come to eat at all. He does sometimes disappear for a couple of days, which always causes me stress, but not this long.  I keep looking for him, calling, knowing one day he's going to be too hurt/sick/weak to make it back home. I'm hoping this is not that time, and everytime I look out the side door for him, I'm freshly heartbroken to not find him.

I have a couple of photos of Sashi, but my laptop is out of commission and has been so for over a month. I'm working on a combination of my work laptop and my old Linux machine.  It's slowed me down quite a bit.  I still have to get some of the data off my old machine, and I think the Sashi pictures I have are on there.  I will definitely work on getting some more of him!
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**HAPPY UPDATE:  Sashi was lying out on his hay bale in the rose garden when I went outside this evening. I was not able to see his foot, but at least I saw him!