It's been awhile since I've been on here... I drew a fair bit of comfort from the posts on this site when a stray cat found its way onto my acreage. At the time I had two elderly indoor kitties, so I couldn't bring in a third, but my husband and I made a safe and warm place for him in a shed beside the house and we continued to bond...
Fast forward two years, my beloved kitties have since passed on, and Jaeger is enjoying his time as an indoor, spoiled and fat cat
My problem is that apparently when you live in an acreage within 25 km of a fair sized city, there seems to be a large number of cats that are dumped... last September we found a kitten at our front door... about 6 months old according to the vet. It was closing in on winter, I still had one elderly cat inside and Jaeger was living in our enclosed porch and didn't really want to share me with anyone else just yet, so I figured since she was young enough that she would find a good home, I sent her off to a cat rescue organization in town.
This afternoon my husband and I went out to the barn... and here is the newest stray to visit our acreage...
I'm calling the kitty Ghost for now and from what I can tell, she is a girl. She doesn't seem to be a feral as while she is fairly skittish, she did approach me and let me pet her. She isn't too skinny and her long hair isn't matted, so she hasn't been on her own long, I don't think....
I can feed this cat, and she can stay in the barn for now, where she is safe and warm, but I would like to know what the best way to introduce her and jaeger... to see if jaeger would allow this cat to be on his property, and allow me to feed and care for her.
I know that I will need to get Ghost vet checked before I let any kind of face to face interaction take place, but I was holding jaeger and let him see that there was another cat on his turf... he was quite... well... let's say, interested... puffy tail, a bit of hissing, but actually calmed down a fair bit when I allowed him to sniff her through the closed barn door...
I have read about ways to bring another cat into the house... their own room, screen doors... that kind of thing... but this one will be outside for awhile, if not forever, and since jaeger is allowed out by himself occasionally, I don't want them fighting.
Fast forward two years, my beloved kitties have since passed on, and Jaeger is enjoying his time as an indoor, spoiled and fat cat
My problem is that apparently when you live in an acreage within 25 km of a fair sized city, there seems to be a large number of cats that are dumped... last September we found a kitten at our front door... about 6 months old according to the vet. It was closing in on winter, I still had one elderly cat inside and Jaeger was living in our enclosed porch and didn't really want to share me with anyone else just yet, so I figured since she was young enough that she would find a good home, I sent her off to a cat rescue organization in town.
This afternoon my husband and I went out to the barn... and here is the newest stray to visit our acreage...
I'm calling the kitty Ghost for now and from what I can tell, she is a girl. She doesn't seem to be a feral as while she is fairly skittish, she did approach me and let me pet her. She isn't too skinny and her long hair isn't matted, so she hasn't been on her own long, I don't think....
I can feed this cat, and she can stay in the barn for now, where she is safe and warm, but I would like to know what the best way to introduce her and jaeger... to see if jaeger would allow this cat to be on his property, and allow me to feed and care for her.
I know that I will need to get Ghost vet checked before I let any kind of face to face interaction take place, but I was holding jaeger and let him see that there was another cat on his turf... he was quite... well... let's say, interested... puffy tail, a bit of hissing, but actually calmed down a fair bit when I allowed him to sniff her through the closed barn door...
I have read about ways to bring another cat into the house... their own room, screen doors... that kind of thing... but this one will be outside for awhile, if not forever, and since jaeger is allowed out by himself occasionally, I don't want them fighting.