Freddie

Almost one year ago I fell in love with a feral cat. I first saw him crouched at the edge of my garden, his eyes on me. He looked a bit scary so I stayed away, but I spoke to him soothingly to put both of us at ease. I walked carefully away that day, mostly so that my fierce dachshund wouldn't harass the cat.

Then I started seeing him every time I went outside, crouching in some shadow somewhere, watching me closely.

I started throwing scraps of food to lure him a bit closer. Twenty feet away, fifteen feet away, five feet, then directly at my feet. He would grab the morsel and scurry away to eat it. He was the most skittish cat I had ever known.

After a couple of months of this, I tried to pet him. The merest brush of his fur caused him to hiss and bare his teeth! Very scary! After another month I managed to sit on my back step and pet him as he sat there with me. I started to go out with a dish of cat food for him, and soon enough I'd find him at my back door every morning when I went to take my dog out. His face was always ripped to shreds from fighting all night.

It was love. A psychologist friend of mine laughed at me when I told her I loved this wild cat. She said he would just be like every other man I ever fell in love with (which there have been exactly two in my life, the second of whom I married) and I was simply looking for another male animal to take care of. I ignored her. What are friends for?

I am pleased to tell you that, after having to quarantine this cat when he bit me, getting us both rabies vaccinated and him "fixed" (I'm already fixed the natural way), releasing him back into the wild, going through a few more months of getting him to trust me enough to come into my house, and training my attack dachshund to have loving feelings when he is near the feral, now Freddie sleeps on my bed with me, my cat Patches, and my dog Jimmy. We all four have yogurt together most mornings. He's a total love!

He was an adult male cat when I first started all this. I worried he would never really be a loving animal; he was very fearful. Now he has his favorite spots in my house! Now he has friends! I let him out after feeding him in the morning, and he comes back for dinner and bed.

Best cat ever! I am so glad I made the effort.

Friend or foe? I'll tell you what Jimmy (the dog) is thinking: "I so want to hump that cat." So far, that has not worked out well for Jimmy.

Here's a previous post I wrote about Freddie, before we got so close.

And here's another.

All images are my own unless otherwise stated.

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