Disposable Pets

Back in 1994 the house on the other side of the treeline behind me caught fire. It happened a couple of weeks prior to Christmas and for some unexplained reason the local volunteer fire department inspector deemed it arson. It sat abandoned until 2010 and someone moved onto the property in a travel trailer and started cleaning it up.

The new owner, Dave, did a fairly decent job of cleaning out the inside and working by himself had managed a roof and some new siding. It's been a slow process of improvement since he's been working by himself.

He has this little goofy long haired black and white cat that suddenly started hanging around my place about the middle of July. He's a small cat made smaller by lack of feeding. When I spoke to Dave about it he claimed the cat wouldn't eat the food he bought. Of course, he was lying. The problem was the new girlfriend that wouldn't let the cat into the motor home to eat. When it was just the two of them, the cat was doted on, once there was a female in the picture, cat wasn't that important anymore. So, I started feeding him. I simply couldn't let the little guy starve to death.

Something happened this past week. It involved the sheriff department, the town codes enforcer and a few other legal eagles. Seems the girlfriend left after a fight, had the electricity turned off and then reported that Dave was living on the property. Dave had to find an apartment and his new home doesn't allow pets. He simply moved out last Thursday leaving his little furball behind.

This is an outdoor kinda kitty, and I am an indoor kinda owner. My conscience won't allow me to leave the poor thing outside all the time. I'd suffer through the howling to force it to adapt to indoor living if it weren't for Butterscotch. While the little kitty is used to encountering other cats outdoors, Butterscotch has never been faced with sharing his house with anyone other than people. I'm not even sure he knows this is another cat. I do know he isn't liking this one damn bit. He's scared of the little thing. This cat weighs a whopping 7 pounds. He's half the size of Butterscotch and the orange one is scared of him. Who knew I was raising a wuss?

There's been no unpleasantness due to little kitty's behavior. While he doesn't back down from Butterscotch, he doesn't push the situation either. However, he wants to be let outside more than he wants to be in the house.  He's a neutered male and doesn't really go that far. According to Joyce, one of my other neighbors, he was seen by the vet in the Spring. Joyce provided the transportation so his shots are most likely current. That does relieve my mind somewhat, but there are many, many ways he could get seriously hurt out there. I live on pins and needles until he shows up at the door to be let in.

I did the Advantage for fleas on him last month and again this month so we aren't worried about that. He's started to gain some weight, regular feedings seem to agree with him. There's been no direct contact between him and Butterscotch and he won't use the litter box so I'm not worried about parasite transmission if that's a problem. I won't know until after I take Butterscotch to the vet next month. He'll be next if he survives, maybe I should say if I survive the stress of worrying about him. Did I tell you his name is Precious?

Dave's doing. He, like us with Butterscotch thought he was a female kitten when he got it.  He didn't discover the mistake for a couple of months, the cat was answering to it so, just like us he didn't change the name. Any similarity stops right there since we, Hubby and I would never, ever walk away and leave our Butterscotch behind. He did absolutely nothing towards trying to find a home for the little guy. Just up and moved out.

I'm assuming he'll be coming back to work on the property although this will probably take longer than it would have since he won't be able to use his rent money to buy the materials he needs for repairs and whatever. If he ever manages to move back in, I'll be damned if he'll get his cat back. I'm hoping that once the weather turns ugly this cat will adapt to what he thinks is the not so great indoors. By then, Butterscotch may have figured out this isn't any threat to him and things will settle down to peaceful co-existence. Dave may have named him, but I know what Precious means and he deserves better than he got from Dave.