New cat in the house. A few weeks back a new cat showed up. A small young bluish-grey cat. He came toward me and stood up to headbutt my hand. Defiantly not a feral. *Warning cat injury inside*. →[More:]

I just assumed he was a neighborhood cat but he was very hungry and then I noticed the clipped ear. It seemed odd that someone would put such a socialized animal back out on the street and why had he come from another group to my colony group? Well, it seems that while he is very social with people he has zero skills for dealing with life as a street cat.

That first evening he managed to get on the bad side of my entire little group. Whenever he was approached by another cat he immediately started hissing and being both aggressive in tone and frightened in posture and I had to intervene to prevent him from getting hurt. He got fed and then went off into the night again. He returned the next night with a hunk of fur missing from his back and and a shallow but nasty looking gash. I cleaned it and put an antibiotic on and resolved to find him an indoor home.

I talked to some people who had expressed interest in a cat and they agreed to take him. A few nights later when I was sure his wound was healing I put him in a carrier and went to talk to those folks. They had changed their minds. I let the cat go again and set out to find him another home. He came by the next few nights eating then leaving quickly when one of the others showed up and got irritated. He wasn't getting any better at inter-cat relations.

One night he came hoping in on three legs. His left front held up to his chest and looking bad. I hustled him into a carrier. It seems he was bitten by something. A cat?

The wound had a puncture on top of the foot and another bigger one underneath just above his largest pad. Some fur and flesh were missing from the top and the bottom had a large area of fur gone and a big abrasion involving the pad too. Like I said, he is not equipped for outdoor life.

With treatment and care he is healing nicely and just today he has taken to putting a bit of weight on that foot.

I had not wanted to keep him because Whitey Ford is old and not really much for play and adding a new young cat seems like a lot to ask of him but as my wife said 'two injuries in two weeks, he'll likely die the next time.'

I gave him a flea treatment and put him in a large kennel out in the porch. After 16 hours (to be sure of flea eradication) I let him roam out there. Whitey spends a lot of time there in the fall and spring but the upstairs has more advantageous windows for summer so it is not too much of an imposition for him to stay out of the porch for now.

I talked to my granddaughter on the phone and told her about the new cat and she was thrilled. 'You have a friendly cat!' She likes cats but it has always been disappointing for her when she visits as she has never been able to touch one of them. I explain that they are feral and it takes years for them to get to know you enough to let you touch them but for a child it is still not much fun. Next time she comes she will have a cat that seems to live only to be scratched. Head, ears, face, back, tummy he wants it all, all the time. When I told my wife what she had said we had a name for new cat. Casper. Casper the friendly ghost begat Casper the friendly cat.

Casper loves the porch futon and sleeps on it stretched out on his back with all his toes curled up. Well not the ones on his left front paw but soon he will, I hope. I have let him come in to the house everyday. Whitey seems indifferent to him. Casper has hissed at Whitey but mostly he explores a bit then trots back to safety of the futon.

When I let Whitey out into the porch he took one look at Casper and then went right for the food bowl. 'Hey there's food in the porch!' It doesn't matter that there is a whole tower of the same food sitting out for him he wants the new food.

Hopefully they will find a way to relate.