Caring for an Orange Cat

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daftcat75

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Haven’t seen him since second breakfast. The fluffed remainder went untouched. At lunch I put out a new can which also went untouched. I have put out yet another new can for dinner. And I got batteries for the feeder! It’s on training mode right now. I don’t know if he’s going to come around for enough meals to graduate from training mode. Then again, at this pace, it may take longer than expected to catch up to him and get him to the shelter. 🤷‍♂️
 

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Haven’t seen him since second breakfast. The fluffed remainder went untouched. At lunch I put out a new can which also went untouched. I have put out yet another new can for dinner. And I got batteries for the feeder! It’s on training mode right now. I don’t know if he’s going to come around for enough meals to graduate from training mode. Then again, at this pace, it may take longer than expected to catch up to him and get him to the shelter. 🤷‍♂️
C'mon, OC! FOOD! GOOD FOOD! Come and get it, boy!
 
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daftcat75

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C'mon, OC! FOOD! GOOD FOOD! Come and get it, boy!
I kinda got a look at the community next door. I didn’t realize there was so much of it. If he’s got as many stops next door as he does here, I’d be surprised to see him more than once a day. Especially if he has the same reputation next door. So many in this community know this cat! 😻
 
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daftcat75

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I wish we could keep him as a community cat. But he does have a lot to offer and deserves a home.
 

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I wish we could keep him as a community cat. But he does have a lot to offer and deserves a home.
I wish you could, too. He obviously feels it is his home and he has at least two friends there. But yes, he needs a snipping, a vetting, and a loving, permanent indoor home where he will be protected and doted upon. I wonder if he has an official name. In addition to OC and meatball, that is.
 
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daftcat75

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I don’t know Krista’s story before the shelter. Maybe OC will be someone’s Krista. That face that says, “if you take me home, I’ll be your best buddy for life.” I was so fortunate with Krista. She was the first and only cat I looked at in the shelter. Such a good cat! Such a good match! 😻

I wish I was ready to take him myself. 😿😭
 
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daftcat75

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I don’t know where he’s at. I haven’t seen him since second breakfast yesterday. Lunch and dinner cans went untouched. I picked up the food at 10 pm last night. The camera doesn’t pick up any footage through the screen door at night. If I wasn’t trying to take him to the shelter next week, I’d get a proper outdoor camera. I plated breakfast at 6:30am today. No sign he’s visited yet. 😿🤷‍♂️

I’ll probably walk the community next door later. See what his other “home” looks like.
 

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I don’t know where he’s at. I haven’t seen him since second breakfast yesterday. Lunch and dinner cans went untouched. I picked up the food at 10 pm last night. The camera doesn’t pick up any footage through the screen door at night. If I wasn’t trying to take him to the shelter next week, I’d get a proper outdoor camera. I plated breakfast at 6:30am today. No sign he’s visited yet. 😿🤷‍♂️

I’ll probably walk the community next door later. See what his other “home” looks like.
Hoping and praying he shows up, healthy and hungry!
 
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daftcat75

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Hoping and praying he shows up, healthy and hungry!
He’s done this before—shown up only once a day. The more he settles in at each community, the longer his daily love tour takes. 🤦‍♂️ 😹 I just hope I’m able to catch up with him next week to get him down to the shelter. I was hoping he would learn this weekend to come by in the mornings so I could nab him tomorrow or Tuesday morning. Maybe he’s wise to the plan to remove him from his stud life. :(
 

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He’s done this before—shown up only once a day. The more he settles in at each community, the longer his daily love tour takes. 🤦‍♂️ 😹 I just hope I’m able to catch up with him next week to get him down to the shelter. I was hoping he would learn this weekend to come by in the mornings so I could nab him tomorrow or Tuesday morning. Maybe he’s wise to the plan to remove him from his stud life. :(
Yeah. He may not know what's good for him, or that plans are in place to try to get him to a good permanent loving home.
 

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This is OC ("orange cat".)
View attachment 351185

He's getting his own thread now rather than complicating Krista's bridge thread.

OC is his stray name. I haven't decided on a more permanent name yet. Though I'm leaning towards Meatball because he's so muscular. Like a tiny orange pit bull.

He is a friendly, intact male who has been hanging around the apartment complex for over a month now. I used to see him before Krista passed. Krista just passed a month ago. Please don't tell me he's an angel kitty or that Krista sent him. Too soon. Too raw. I'm not ready to be a full-time cat guardian again. And given the last few messy years of Krista's life, I will not house a male until he's fixed.

That said, he needs someone to step up for him. He's been frequenting both this apartment complex and the one next door. He's been listed as a Found Cat on both Nextdoor and Pawboost and no-one has claimed him yet. I don't know if he has a chip yet. If I can catch up to him Friday morning, I will take him down to my vet for a chip scan, an exam, and lab work. If I can't catch up with him in the morning, I'll look to see if one of the low cost clinics that sometimes operate out of the pet food stores are still running right now. While I have snuggled the love out of him while he tried to bust my body barrier during meal prep and I have once lifted him off the counter and set him on the floor, I really don't know how he's going to react when I try to get him into a carrier (or box.) That's only the first step.

Because of Covid, the shelter has been pretty useless. Most of their services are still closed. They aren't answering their phone and their email has an auto-reply saying it can take "up to four days" to receive a reply. I'm just trying to find this guy a low-cost neuter and they're a black hole at the moment. I have one more low-cost lead. But that's probably not looking good either. I will likely have to get him snipped out of my own pocket. Even then, it sounds like a lot of vets are backed up because they only recently got the go-ahead to resume elective surgeries. And for some maddening reason, spay/neuter was deemed elective.

This is probably why he's homeless. I imagine he was an adorable kitten who came of age and started marking the apartment. The owner tried to find a neuter and learned those weren't happening during Covid and turned this sweet guy loose. That's how I think it went down. 😿
OC is one handsome kitty. He deserves a good home. I have 5 friendly cats out of the 2 groups that I feed and if I had the space or money --I would take them in. I hate seeing adoptable cats living on the streets, it is one thing to have ferals on the streets- that is their home, but the friendly ones should have a chance to be adopted.

I plucked kittens and young friendly cats up and put in a carrier. You need to be fast or even the nicest kitties will freak out and scratch you up. I advise that you go the safe route and use a cat trap. Put the cat's favorite food or you can use tuna to lure him in. Once he is trapped you have to put him in a crate in a room to decompress. He may be very weary of you at first, but he will come around.

It is a shame that so many places are shut down due to COVID 19. I would have gone to a discount vet. If you have to use a regular vet for neuter, look into the Friends of Animals discount voucher. I used them in the past with a few strays, that was before a TNR clinic opened near where I live. Best of luck to you.😊
 
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daftcat75

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OC is one handsome kitty. He deserves a good home. I have 5 friendly cats out of the 2 groups that I feed and if I had the space or money --I would take them in. I hate seeing adoptable cats living on the streets, it is one thing to have ferals on the streets- that is their home, but the friendly ones should have a chance to be adopted.

I plucked kittens and young friendly cats up and put in a carrier. You need to be fast or even the nicest kitties will freak out and scratch you up. I advise that you go the safe route and use a cat trap. Put the cat's favorite food or you can use tuna to lure him in. Once he is trapped you have to put him in a crate in a room to decompress. He may be very weary of you at first, but he will come around.

It is a shame that so many places are shut down due to COVID 19. I would have gone to a discount vet. If you have to use a regular vet for neuter, look into the Friends of Animals discount voucher. I used them in the past with a few strays, that was before a TNR clinic opened near where I live. Best of luck to you.😊
He trusts me and follows me into my apartment unit when he sees me and is hungry. From there, he leaps onto whichever kitchen counter he thinks I’m prepping the food on. Last time he was in, he guessed wrong. As a test, I gently lifted him and carried him to the other counter and did not get assaulted. I don’t expect there to be a problem with packing him in a carrier as much as just catching up to him. He’s got a big territory if he’s visiting the apartment complex next door as other neighbors are reporting. His daily love tour seems to be growing. He used to be predictable. But now I think he has more stops. 😻😹
 

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He trusts me and follows me into my apartment unit when he sees me and is hungry. From there, he leaps onto whichever kitchen counter he thinks I’m prepping the food on. Last time he was in, he guessed wrong. As a test, I gently lifted him and carried him to the other counter and did not get assaulted. I don’t expect there to be a problem with packing him in a carrier as much as just catching up to him. He’s got a big territory if he’s visiting the apartment complex next door as other neighbors are reporting. His daily love tour seems to be growing. He used to be predictable. But now I think he has more stops. 😻😹
If you have a side-loading carrier you can always put him in tail-first.
 
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daftcat75

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If you have a side-loading carrier you can always put him in tail-first.
I got a Sherpa carrier. I may go back and get a bigger hard-sided carrier since I don’t know if he’s going to have accidents. Otherwise, I’ll line the Sherpa with pee pads and a pad underneath it on the car seat. As for loading him, I don’t think I’ll have trouble. Worst case scenario, I can throw a towel over him and load him into a cardboard box carrier. I brought Krista home in one of those a few times because she soiled her regular carrier or she was being too ornery to go back into the regular carrier.

If I can get this one into a box (volume up), I think I can manage OC.
https://thecatsite.com/media/my-little-lion.422562/
 

tarasgirl06

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I got a Sherpa carrier. I may go back and get a bigger hard-sided carrier since I don’t know if he’s going to have accidents. Otherwise, I’ll line the Sherpa with pee pads and a pad underneath it on the car seat. As for loading him, I don’t think I’ll have trouble. Worst case scenario, I can throw a towel over him and load him into a cardboard box carrier. I brought Krista home in one of those a few times because she soiled her regular carrier or she was being too ornery to go back into the regular carrier.

If I can get this one into a box (volume up), I think I can manage OC.
https://thecatsite.com/media/my-little-lion.422562/
*Quaking in clogs* FEROCIOUS!!!
Hope all will be well. FYI though, with those cardboard carriers, even the heavy ones: I've had cats push right up through the top and out. A double-door top-and-side-loading hard carrier is really a "must" IMHO. I like Petmate brand, available through Petco. Actually other brands are similar and cheaper. IDK how good they are, though:
https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...t-containment/cat-carriers-crates-and-kennels
 
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daftcat75

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I haven’t seen OC all day. I went to the community next door.

Meow!

Spotted!

Wait! You’re not OC. Turn around. Yep. Definitely not OC.

So there’s this very friendly orange girl in the community next door. And if she’s not fixed, there will soon be gorgeous orange kittens. She was very friendly and seemed perhaps too eager to follow me.

“I got enough orange cats to worry about. You stay here.”
 

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daftcat75

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It is possible that a neighbor picked him up yesterday.

After not seeing him since breakfast, I went for a lunch walk to look for him. Then drove off to run an errand. On my way out of the complex, I saw a neighbor squatting to talk or otherwise engage with a cat-sized liaison. I didn’t see him (or her) because the neighbor’s body was in the way. I decided to circle back through the complex, park, and see if he would still be there and can be convinced to take a lunch. When I got back to where that neighbor was, she was taking a cat carrier to a friend, roommate, or partner’s car. It could have been her own cat that she was taking to the vet. But the initial encounter that I saw, stooping down to talk to what was presumably a free cat. I never stopped down to talk to Krista in her carrier when I could just as easily lift her to my height for an eye to eye.

I looked at the city shelter site and did not see him checked in yet as a found cat. I’ll keep an eye on the city site.

And of course, I’ll keep putting food out and keep an eye for him in the community.
 
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daftcat75

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Visited!

I can’t say for sure that it was OC. But how many other cats are crawling under my deck fence? None yesterday and most of today.

In other developments, I set the feeder to halfway training mode. That means the mechanism that opens and closes over the food based on motion is closing halfway. He’s probably just one more meal away from me being able to graduate him out of training mode. That would let me leave a can out overnight or most of the day as it would keep the air and flies out.

So now I’m going to try to wake early enough to bring him in for breakfast if he goes door to door in the morning.
 
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daftcat75

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Either he has a new collar or I have a new caller.
New collar or new caller?

I was going to wait for him to come around hungry and see if he’d meow door to door like the other morning. But now I think I’ll just set out breakfast and see if the camera can catch him during day hours. I’ll look for him at lunch and evening too.

New collar or new caller?
 
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