I've been taking care of a stray cat

fionasmom

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Please don't feel that you are expected to post or somehow "join". This site would not be here if it were not intended to help people with their cats, with no obligation. Let us know how things go from time to time. Wishing you and D2 the best of luck.
 

momof3b1g

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since early last fall and he's been coming here mostly every day to eat. My dilemma is that I want to bring him inside eventually but hubby says NO to that idea. He says our two cat wouldn't get along with him and he's afraid that they'd end up spraying in the house (they're neutered, btw). Our two cats, both males, are about 5 years old and are inside cats who are taken outside for about an hour every day by our daughter for their supervised walk. This stray cat, who we call D2 (looks very similar to our one cat, Dean), seems to want to be friends with them and he will follow them around (or try anyway) outside on these walks. Our more dominant cat, Sam, always ends up chasing him away. He's not real aggressive anymore like he had been when D2 first started showing up here, but you can tell that he doesn't want to be bothered with him.

I am taking D2 to a clinic on Wednesday to get spayed because we're all tired of the smell of cat urine outside, and also I just think it would be irresponsible of us to let him impregnate neighborhood cats. I actually had wanted to get him "fixed" over a month ago but we had to cancel the appointment because of a bad snowstorm. The clinic is an hour away from here, is free (I applied to a cat group for a voucher to give them at the clinic and the bill will go to the group), and too far for us to drive to on those terribly snowy roads or else we'd have had D2 neutered before this, as I'm well aware of about when cats start looking around for mates.

D2 is such a nice laid-back cat who doesn't seem like he'd hurt a fly. He even ignores the birds (from my perspective anyway) that are around here. I think he would make such a nice house cat and would love to be able to bring him inside eventually and it upsets me to no end that my husband and daughter are both against it. I feel like they are ganging up on me about this. They don't think that our cats will ever accept D2. Is that the case sometimes, that inside pet house cats might not accept another cat? I've read online about people having multiple cats and so it's hard for me to imagine our cats not ever becoming friendly with this poor stray cat. Would they indeed start spraying in the house or would D2 spray in the house even after he's neutered? It just tears me up seeing him outside in the blustery cold winter, especially when it's snowing. He sits outside the door of our screened-in porch looking in at Sam and Dean and I can't help but wonder if he's capable of thinking something like," If they're in there, why can't I be?" Maybe I'm like my husband says and too emotional and put human feelings on a cat when they're not capable of thinking like that, but how do we absolutely know for sure that they're not capable of thinking that way? My husband and I have had more fights over this subject lately than we've fought about anything else in a long time. I just wondered what other people think of this situation and if you think that D2 can live outside on his own for an extended period of time. I have no idea how old he is. I just know that he has been hanging on the outskirts of our yard since early last spring and I guess after months finally worked up the nerve to come closer to the house. Our daughter was actually the one who started feeding him but it was occasionally. Then I started feeding him every day and have gotten attached to him. I'm the only one here who IS attached to him. I pity him being outside all by himself with not a friend in the world to hang out with.
Oh you sound just like me. I get easily attached to the strays. I cry when I drop them off at the shelter. I have 7 of my own. All strays that were found in my yard. I had 9 at one time. But about 2 years with 8 and 9. They just didn't get along with my other cats. We made the hard decision to rehome them. I cried for months. I still miss them to this day and my heart is not the same. If you ever want to talk, feel free to message me. My family doesn't like to hear me repeat myself.
 
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