Back where he belongs...thanks to bad weather

willingly came in for a nap

With a Tropical Storm threatening, I picked up the MG cat and brought him inside.  He has been coming in late at night or early in the morning...when he is hungry, but quickly heads out the door and back to Dead Mama's house.  So when he yowled to go outside, I ignored him.  The worst of the storm was coming at the time no one was at home to bring him inside, so he spent a long 30 plus hours inside.  

Early this morning, seeing as how it was just wet and windy, we let him go out again.  I did not expect to see him again until late tonight.

Much to my surprise, when I went to get the mail, he shot into the garage and the kitchen door.  So I gave him a late breakfast and continued getting ready for work.  After half an hour, I just found him curled up on the bathroom floor sleeping.  NO desire to go outside (which is good because a tropical storm influenced thunderstorm is on the horizon).

I noticed lots of activity at Dead Mama's today, but no sign of MG.  So I suspect that inside time at my house, just reinforced where home actually is...and where it is not.

Thank you Tropical Storm Andrea.

Just like the Clap...she's back

Day 6

This morning I called like normal for MG.  He promptly ran up to THIS bowl.  Yes, she's been here again, sometime since yesterday afternoon.

The sad thing is she is very sporadic.  She did not put food down yesterday at all, MG ate from his dry food in the garage and twice inside with the other two.  I am just so worried that the reason all the her other 'cat charges' disappeared over the years is because the voices in her head told her to feed them strychnine or some other more physical damage.  

I am literally holding my breath every morning and evening to see if he will show up when I call.

I know why she started paying attention to him.  He's a slut.  We had a slut cat in college too.  We'd let him out and watch him walk up the porches of every other apartment around the pool.  He'd meow and get a treat, some attention, he'd lay down under someone's chair as they sunbathed.  Every person in the pool area knew that cat.  MG is exactly the same personality.  I have seen him helping a neighbor 2 houses down work in his garden, my immediate next door neighbor says he jumps up on her window sill and looks in at her.  Which is exactly how he came to our attention.

A year and a half ago, it was early winter and still warm enough to have the windows open.  I was feeding the lot inside (which was 4 cats at that time) and I kept hearing meowing.  This is not unusual at food time.  But it seemed like there was more meowing than normal.  So I got all the bowls down and said "There, eat!"  and all 4 cats were eating away and I could still hear "Meow?"  

I looked out the kitchen window and next to the BBQ was this orange cat.  I said, "Hello, who are you?"  And instead of running he jumped up on the BBQ.  I went to the back door and opened it and he walked right in.  I pulled a bowl and filled it with some food and he ate.  He was very polite.  All the other cats sniffed at him.  JC, my old guy was like...'chah, another one huh?' and went back to his spot to sleep.  Pirate was fascinated by him, Storm growled and scoffed off in a huff.  The Rat Bastard was so happy to not have an old guy cat or an annoyed girl cat that he was doing backflips over the new one.

Thus started the game.  Every morning and night, he'd jump onto the window sill and cry.  When it got cold that winter, I just let him inside.  I reopened the cat door I had locked after CaliCat died and other than he would not push it open (I had to tape it open until he got used to it).  He hung at our house for nearly a full year.  

It was February or so of THIS year that suddenly Crazy Woman noticed him.  And that started my fun.  I need to talk with them about this.  However I really do not want to go over there and knock on the door.  The last time I did, they made me come inside and 'sit a spell'.  It's dark and hoardy and smells like dog...plus Dead Mama is always cold, so it is HOT and stuffy on top of it.  Not to mention I have seen Crazy Woman 3 days running in the same clothes...imagine that smell.

I'll just have to wait for one of those fun days I get caught at the mailbox.

I just caught Crazy Woman!

My windows are open...I just got out of the shower, in my robe and I heard a clinking....I looked at the clock and it is way too early for Ed to be home and then I saw her.  Crazy Woman about 15 feet from my door.

She had just fed MG cat on my porch!

He's happily eating away

When I heard the noise, I was working on makeup, since Ed and I are planning on going out, so I said "Hey, is that you?"

She was scurrying so the best picture I could get was this through the window.

She's in red pants today...picture is blurred to protect the crazy

Holy crap on a cracker!

Attack of the Water Bowl

From my porch to their yard

Yesterday I wrote about the sudden arrival of a food bowl on my front stoop.  It is absolutely delicious for Florida in May, so we had our windows open yesterday.  Last night Ed decided that instead of leaving the windows open like we normally would, he would close them...because you don't know if Crazy Woman will show up to deliver more food and decide to break in.

It's not without precedent.  Years ago, I let the cats outside on a day like today for a romp.  (Those excursions ended when they chased a black racer snake into the house and it took a week to track it and remove it...story for another day).  I had left the door slightly cracked, so they could come in and out and needed.  I was doing chores inside.  At that time the house was divided into a living room/dining room and a family room/kitchen with doors connecting the dining room and kitchen and the front entry connecting the living room and family room.  (After remodeling it is just one big great room).  So I could not see the front door from the kitchen.  I walked back to the bedroom area and encountered Crazy Woman in my front hall.

She was just standing there staring at the floor.  Scared the bejesus out of me.  At this time I didn't even know her name.  It was just bizarre that she walked to my front door, found it cracked open and just walked in.  She told me some nonsense about being injured by the water company and then left.  I quickly ushered the cats inside and closed and locked the door. 

So, concern over her not knowing boundaries is founded.  

This morning I opened the blinds and the windows and found Crazy Woman had been by, a water bowl has joined the food bowl.  I'm glad I pulled the blinds and Ed closed the windows.

Little blue water bowl next to food bowl.  Yes, MG visits here.

Oh that's just a bit creepy...

waiting out the rain

Rain for 4 days solid, makes for a cranky outside MG cat.  He's spent more time inside than outside this week.  Because the rain has been flooding, there are not many places he can go and escape water.  If he has been out, I call or open the garage door and he'd run through the rain to get inside.

Bottom line:  He hasn't been next door around Crazy Woman.

Yesterday morning I went to check on a plant I put outside (dying Poinsettia from Christmas) and noticed a ceramic saucer on the front stoop.  I hadn't talked with Ed about it and thought perhaps someone had given him some food he didn't like and he put it outside for something else to eat....HIGHLY unlikely, but weirder things have happened.  This morning I wanted to mention it to him and looked out the window.  That's when I saw the plate had been replaced by a matching bowl...and that matching bowl was filled with cat food.

Yes.  Crazy woman's need to feed is so strong that even when she knows he's inside MY HOUSE, comfortable, dry and with food...she walks TO MY FRONT DOOR and deposits cat food on my porch.

White bowl of cat food.  I am standing IN my front door

I don't know how to explain to these people that I have been taking care of this cat for a year and a half.  What they are doing is confusing him.  I've fed him, kept him warm in the winter, dried him when he was wet, put expensive flea medication on him, etc, etc, etc.  I EVEN TOLD THEM face to face, HE'S OUR CAT!  

I think these people have serious problems understanding boundaries.  Physical and otherwise.  Years ago we had a battle royale with Daddy over the property line.  He was convinced he owned all the property between our houses.  His side yard.  Didn't matter that most of what he thought he owned was between the street/mailbox and our front door.  Can anyone explain to me how someone can think land 40 feet past someone's mailbox is their property?  I actually had to get the plot map out and show him where his property was...then asked him to move the junk cars off my side of the property. 

Yep, these people definitely don't understand boundaries.

chilling in the garage during the rain

Sunshine? Avoid the Mailbox

I just got out of the shower, got dressed, sopping wet hair and barefoot....decided before I dried my hair, I'd get the mail and newspaper and bring the recycling bin up.  It's a beautiful day afterall.

I started to head up the driveway with the recycling bin and I hear RumSon calling for Yardman.  My mantra started, "please don't see me...please don't see me..."

"Hey Stapht" (understand that is how my name sounds when uttered in the Florida Cracker dialect).

Shit.

So I turn around and much to my delight, I am regaled with details of the current mental health care that Crazy Woman is under.  As I suspected a few weeks ago, she was going off her meds.  Seems in the last week or so she totally stopped them again.

Now she is one step away from permanent institutionalization.  She is violent when unmedicated and they have voluntarily locked her up as many times as they can.  Well evidently, noteworthy for those of you who do have a mental case nearby, there is a new program (12 years old) that they come to your house and shoot up the crazy, as an alternative to Baker Acting.

Just for a minute imagine how much fun that job is...300 pound woman, schizophrenic and off her meds, prone to violence and you get to show up and give her an antipsychotic shot.  Sign me up for that one.

For the record, I just said hello.  And Goodbye.

My cat dammit!

February 12, 2012

I haven't written lately, because frankly I am pissed off.  SERIOUSLY PISSED OFF at the lot next door.

The lovely creature above wandered up last year during the winter, this is the first picture I took of him in February.  I believe he wandered up sometime around the Holidays of 2011.  I say that because I lost my sweet Cali Cat in April of 2011 and remember thinking it is typical that one wandered up within 6 months of her passing.  She was the outdoor cat who patrolled our yard against usurpers. 

EVERYONE at the end of the street is well acquainted with MG (Mostly Ginger), he's quite a social creature.  Most know he calls our house home.  I am positive he belonged to someone who moved and left him behind...a foreclosure in the neighborhood next door perhaps or a house down was a rental, until it recently sold.  I suspect that house because the cat appeared right after they moved.

But suddenly in the past couple of weeks, he has been disappearing.  He's not sleeping on the chairs on the front porch; hasn't been waiting for breakfast or dinner; hasn't even been greeting me when I get home from work in the wee hours of the morning.  Then I saw it, him next door in the driveway following Crazy Woman as she does her 'fruit loops' walk around the yard.

This partially disturbed me because she has a record of sporadically feeding stray cats, but they never last for very long before they disappear completely.  At this point I should mention the dog.  Yardman has a bulldog /boxer mix that I was informed years ago, "hates cats".  So far I haven't found anything other than Dead Mama's family that this dog likes, so he is always leashed.  Ed and I call him "Cujo". 

I had noticed MG frequenting their yard, but he roams through about 4 yards at the end of the street, so I didn't really care too much, until two weekends ago when I saw Cujo chase MG up a tree.  I ran outside to rescue him.  I got there just as he was coming down, so I scooped him up and brought him inside until the dog was locked up again.  Dead Mama and Yardman saw me grab him.  So fast forward to this week.  MG was gone again, I was worried, he had not even touched the dry food I had in the garage for him.  So I went looking for him.  

He was under the POS car in their driveway.  I called him and he reluctantly came.  Unfortunately, just at that point both RumSon and Crazy Woman appeared.  That's when I got pissed (and sad).  Seems Crazy Woman was convinced MG was homeless and needed her care, so she started feeding him.  Obviously he is an opportunist, so food and PEOPLE outside all day long to pay attention to him was appealing...so he started hanging out over there.  OVER a year I have been taking care of this creature...A YEAR!  

THEN RumSon, repeatedly referring to him as "SHE"....now I admit he has a full coat and in winter it is impossible to glance and tell...but I digress...RumSon informs me 'she' is a friendly cat and Crazy Woman was worried no one was taking care of 'her', so she started feeding 'her'.  I corrected RumSon and said, I have been taking care of HIM for over a year now.  Giving him medicine, feeding him, keeping him warm during the winter....and at that point Crazy Woman wanders towards us.  She doesn't really 'engage' in a conversation, so she stayed about 30 feet away staring at the ground.  

RumSon starts telling her the cat is being taken care of and she doesn't have to worry.  He then tells me that its a good thing because "Crazy Woman" constantly opens the door and lets the cat in.  He then has to find the dog and lock it up.  Yes, knots started in my stomach at that point.  The thought of MG being trapped in that house with Cujo absolutely horrifies me.  It would horrify me if I had no connection to the cat...but this animal has slept on my pillow for most of the winter....I've bonded with him.

I'm hoping that RumSon stops buying cat food and Crazy Woman stops feeding him.  He'll just wander back over to our yard.  It's has been a week since that conversation, MG jumped up on the window sill in the kitchen like he used to for breakfast.  Maybe he is back to eating here.  I am beside myself, but I know absolutely no way to 'convince' a cat not to visit another house when that cat loves people and they are always outside, especially if they start feeding him.

All I have to say is if something happens to MG, there will be a border war at the end of the street.  

MG and General fighting for attention