No trap yet

We were really hoping we could rent the trap today, but the city said the earliest would be Friday because it is supposed to be rainy this week. They don't rent them out in the rain because people trap cats in the rain and they drown. So sad. We're going back to just trying to lure him in this week.

Everett

Everett ate his whole dinner inside just 2 feet away from me! We were worried for a while he wouldn't be tameable, but he doesn't hate people. Just scared and lonely I think.

He comes for the Solid Gold tuna food. I gave him a different canned food and he sniffed it and poked it with his paw and looked at me like "what's this?" At least we know he's getting enough to eat now (he has dry food left out at night too).

During his first visit tonight he just sat watching for a while and rolling around on his back in the dirt beside the patio...so cute.

Indy's still doing his crazy battle cries when Everett visits. But it's funny how overdramatic he is. In the midst of his screaming, if you yell "treats!" he'll have no problem turning his back on the intruder to happily eat. Or if you pick him up he just goes limp and will talk and purr and be his normal self. At least he's not too stressed.

Stuff

First of all, we'd like to say Happy 4th of July to our American friends!

Second, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all the advice about dealing with the outdoor cat. We've never been in this situation before and are pretty nervous.

Third, after spending what has added up to be hours just sitting talking to the cat, he has a name. At first I thought he wanted to be called Willy, our bird's name, because once when the cat was visiting I was sitting near the bird cage, the bird was chirping excitedly and every time I said "Willy," the cat would look up from eating and stare at me. Then I realized the cat was staring at the bird and probably wanted to eat him. Anyway, cat's name is Everett. It means strong as a wild boar. He has this name because it fits him and he's strong and wild.

And last, a few pictures from yesterday of Zoe, Indy, and Georgia. Zoe and Indy made a little laundry basket into their new favorite bed.

Cats can be uncooperative.

Well we can't live like this much longer. Ok, that's a little overdramatic, but nights are getting very difficult. He comes by about 4 times each night, the last time usually around 4AM. So it's getting impossible to sleep because we're always braced for the Indy and Zoe freak-outs. Then when Indy and Zoe kindly alert the whole neighborhood the he has arrived with blood-curdling screams, we have to put our cats away in a bedroom to separate them and they calm down. Then we can either hope the cat still has some dry food outside and wait until he goes away, or get up, get him food and feed him inside. I can't look at the skinny dirty little thing and not get up. So then we get out the food for outside kitty and wait tiredly while he decides if he wants to come in and eat. (He comes in and out a few times before deciding it's safe enough to eat).

He's still really scared of us but he'll eat inside now with me sitting about 5 or 6 feet away from him. If I move though he'll take off.

We're trying to decide what to do now. We can keep doing this until he decides he's a little more comfortable in the house and coax him into his room. He's so scared of us though, and doesn't even seem curious about us. It's eat and run, only coming in because he has to to eat. So we're thinking this will take a long time. Tonight I'm going to try putting his food further inside and see how far he comes in.

Anyway, taking a long time would be fine if he was neutered and safe outside, but he's not. I'm feeling irresponsible letting him leave 4 times a night out into thunderstorms, traffic, and other cats to fight or mate with. He's definitely the only cat around here that we've seen that's so scared of people.

Anyway, the dad is away for the weekend, but we found out the city rents out humane traps and we were thinking we'd try to trap him on Monday. Don't know if this is a bad move though. We don't know how much he'll panic or if he'll be aggressive or how on earth we'd ever get him into a carrier to get him to the vet. And then what?

Anyway, I guess I'm saying it seems like we have no good options.

Sleep Deprived

After the 7PM visit, our cat friend came back last night at 10PM, 2AM, and 4AM. Everybody is up when he comes too because of Indy going crazy. So we're feeling a little helpless and tired.

When I woke up this morning, Georgia was sleeping just inches away from Indy so that was good. It's too bad we may have to disturb the newfound harmony in the house we worked so hard for.

Anyway, the cat probably won't be back again until early evening...so it's nap time around here.

7PM

It's getting earlier every day. We're pretty sure we can say for certain now that he's not neutered.

Here's our new friend about an hour ago. We were really hoping we'd be able to get him to stay as we're worried about him outside tonight. There will be a huge Canada Day fireworks show set off fairly close to us and lots of drunk partiers. We hope he comes back later.

9 PM

He came earlier tonight, before we put food out for him. So he came right up to the window to see where dinner was. He watched cautiously from a distance while his bowl was filled, then came to eat when he thought it was safe.

Georgia is interested in him.
This picture is blurry...but we managed to lure him over to the open door with some Solid Gold tuna. We couldn't get near him or get him to come in though, and he left soon after.

We put the bowl just inside the door for a while, but he'd rather not eat than have to step foot in here. Good progress still. I'm not sure what to do though if he does come in. Shut the door? He'll be so scared and run around and probably hide. How do I get him to the spare room where we can segregate him? Poor guy will be so scared. But now I'm sure we have to do it, after seeing him up close in the light I can see he's got scratches on his nose and definitely looks homeless.

UPDATE 4AM: He came all the way in to eat. He also got curious and explored the cat tree a bit and and came in about 5 or 6 feet exploring under the coffee table. I wasn't sure what to do...if I moved at all he got scared and ran out. We'll feed him inside again tomorrow and hopefully he'll get more comfortable with it. I think he's come at least 3 times tonight.