Cats! Part Deaux

It's about time I finished introducing my cats. When we left the subject of our family felines Simone was living happily ever after with Stevie, and only incidentally, Blog Mom and Daddy. The only fly in that ointment is that there is no "ever after" in real life. Things change in good ways and bad ways and just in ways, all the time. One way that things changed was that Happy joined the family. He had already been named. He certainly wasn't happy when he joined this family.

Happy in a more characteristic pose

Happy was a victim of a landlord/tenant problem. One of the neighbors had been renting an apartment in his house and then he had to sell in a hurry and the tenants had to go, also in a hurry. Seems they forgot to pack the cat and Happy was left behind and considerably traumatized by this abandonment. That's not hard to understand.

Of course, once my family found out about it Happy was invited to stay with us. Or ,rather, them. These events predate my arrival by a couple of years, at least. He didn't want to come in for the longest time. He liked people, but was terrified by other four leggers of all types. If Happy had been listed on Petfinders it would have said that he'd prefer to be an only pet. The only thing is, with the number of cats available for adoption at any given time, and Happy being a gray tabby - not exactly a rarity - it was thought that he might be better off learning to adjust than to take his chances at the local shelter.

They let him stay in the garage and fed him there for a while, but Alpha Mom took him to the Vet for a check-up, shots and a neutering right away. Seems his original people had forgotten to do that, too, and he was left free to roam around the neighborhood creating more homeless kitties. After a time the humans here decided that the garage thing wasn't working out so well. It was constantly filled with other cats, most of whom had homes of their own, and they were eating Happy's food up. He was getting skinnier and skinnier. They insisted that he had to at least eat inside. He did and gradually got used to things like soft furniture and warmth on cold days and such and got big and plump and healthy.

Here's what Happy is -confused. Since he was outside for a long time he's allowed out when he asks. He just pretty much stays around the yard anyway. He has a strong urge to go out at night, too. As soon as it's dark he starts asking to go and will get kind of crazy if someone doesn't let him right out. The thing is, he's neutered. He doesn't need to hunt. He doesn't really know why he's out there once he's let out. So as soon as the door is opened again he comes back and has a bite to eat. And then he starts yowling and insisting that he must go out again. With the amount of coming and going in this house that whole process gets repeated at least five different times during the evening.  It's fairly entertaining, actually.

 Simone, of course, wasn't happy about Happy joining the household. She isn't exactly a "more the merrier' type. She tried to say she wasn't having it, but found out that she didn't quite have that kind of authority. She had to adjust, of course, but she's still probably less than thrilled about the whole thing. Stevie didn't mind. He never really minded anything. He didn't mind my arrival either. The others did, of course. But they had to adjust to that, too. Now, with the exception of an occasional brutal attempted attack on me, we're rubbing along all right, I think.