A Cat Comes Out of the Woods

Sometimes You Choose the Cat, Sometimes the Cat Chooses You

 

Background

For the last several years, a small cat has come out of the woods in our backyard in Lake Mills. We have a screen porch which we put in a few years ago because the existing deck was both too small and basically unusable because the nearest of the woods made the mosquitoes especially bad. So since we're there in the nice weather time of year we spend a lot of time out there and it's a space our two cats (Tuna, a male and Mystic, a female) like a lot. There are squirrels, chickmonks, but especially birds because Debbie has a feeder for them mainly as eye candy for the cats.

I have to point out that Debbie was not a natural cat person. Her family never had cats growing up (her mom was genuinely afraid of them), but did get a kitten as a gift from her students in her first teaching job. She named it Spicey. But things really changed some 17 years ago when her son, Bill, was attending UW Eau Claire. He took in a cat from some fellow students and before that it was a stray cat that wasn't even remotely feral. We think it was at least a year old and maybe as old as 3 at that point. The name of the cat was King. Bill didn't have any cat food right away, but did have tuna. The cat, of course, loved that and Bill decided to go with the name Tuna. Our joke about this is if he could have afforded salmon, that would have been the name! Bill had to "temporarily" give up Tuna and Debbie took care of it while he was in the army. But then he had an apartment that didn't accept pets, so she needed to keep Tuna for another year. After all that time Debbie was never giving up her cat!

My story is pretty simple. Growing up we had 6 cats so I have a lot of experience. The first two were strays which we adopted, two of them (both Siamese) came from the Humane Society, and two siblings that we took as kittens from a family friend. So I was quite used to having cats around and learned about cat personalities and how to approach cats. Debbie has often referred to me as the "cat whisperer."

Tuna is not a normal cat in many respects, but anyone who knows anything about cats knows they all have different personalities. You don't have to approach it cautiously and stick out your hand. You just treat it like a dog and immediately start petting it which Tuna loves. When we return home Tuna is almost always there to greet us and rolls over so we can pet its belly. She then got a kitten because her brother took in a calico which he found in his alley (so he gave it the name Alley), but let it go out and didn't get it fixed. So it immediately had kittens, although just 3 as it was so young. Debbie took in one of these in 2009 because it was the last one to be given away. It looked like a very small version of Tuna although they have very different personalities. She gave it the name Mystic. Tuna is a Gray Tabby while the new cat is a Gray Tiger. But Debbie sometimes has issues when approaching a typical cat as she doesn't give them enough space and let them approach. Up until recently she has had trouble petting Mystic whereas I generally can. But visitors to the houses you can immediately tell who knows about cats and who doesn't. Debbie now jokes that she thought Tuna would train the new kitten. Yeah, it doesn't work that way.

2020 - "It Looks Like Spicy!"

In the summer of 2020 Debbie was going out on the screen porch to do her daily yoga when she calls to me that she hears what sounds like a cat in the woods. It was meowing incessantly and the voice was gravelly, but it was out of view. Suddenly Debbie could see it and excitedly says, "It looks like Spicy!" Spicy was the name of the little kitty that was given to her from her students - seen in the photo on the left. And before I could stop her she's out the door walking toward the cat who was now clearly visible. I'm thinking she's going to scare the poor cat away, but that's not what happened. The cat comes right up to her so it's obvious it isn't a feral cat. The little cat looks pretty skinny so I head in to quickly get some cat food in a dish to see if it will eat. As I'm carrying the bowl it's right underneath me very excited sticking right with me looking directly at the bowl and it was obvious it knew what that bowl meant. I fed it ... a lot! It didn't have a collar so no identification there, so we got some pictures and Debbie was out on Facebook on the Lake Mills Community Page to see if anyone was missing a cat. We then took it to the vet (it did not like going into the carrier and I got scratched) and because it was the middle of COVID, the tech came out to our car. My heart sunk as there was no chip and there was no collar. We learned it was also a male. Back home the cat was eating more and would just jump onto our laps. It was definitely a people cat!

4 hours after the cat came out of the woods we got a response from Facebook with someone saying it looked like their Oliver who had been missing for 10 days. They showed a picture and it indeed did look like the cat. It was from a farm located almost 2 miles away. She finally came with a cat carrier that was in pretty bad condition. Once again I had to put the cat into a crate and fortunately I did better and didn't get scratched. But it was disconcerting that the lady didn't seem excited at all about finding the cat and frankly acted a little irritated. There was nothing to be done as it was hers. The crate was actually broken and as I tried to put it into her truck, Oliver got out and headed for the woods. But it didn't go in and just stood there so I was able to pick it up. This time I just put it in the car. She drove off and that should have been the end of it. At this point I need to point out that Debbie's son, Bill, happened to be living with us, but just for the summer before he would return to Denver. But he was not with us that day as he was up north visiting his father. We told him how friendly it was and it would just jump up onto your lap! He was actually hoping that the cat would go unclaimed because he thought he might want it. In total we had only 6 hours with the cat. What I'll always remember is Debbie saying when it was all done, "That was kinda exciting to have that cat today!"

The Rest of the Story

Less than a week later suddenly the cat was back again by the screen porch so had made the 2-mile journey back! Bill was very excited to see the cat and fell in love with it immediately. But it belongs to someone else. We know who to call to let them know the cat came around again, but we got the following response: "Do you know anyone who might want this cat? It's going to just keep running away." We now got "the rest of the story" which was it really wasn't her cat. She agreed to take the cat from a friend and her thought was no problem as they had lots of cats. But these are farm cats and this "Oliver" was clearly not a farm cat. It needed attention and thrived being around people. The cat clearly had chosen us! Bill decided on the spot he would take the cat. This meant getting it chipped, vaccinations, and neutering. He named him "Stonks" (he didn't like the name we liked which was Sammy as in Salmon) and he'd be going back to Denver in just a few weeks.

How did the cat do with our two other cats? He did absolutely fine and Tuna (our big powder puff) who couldn't have cared less. But Mystic was not happy with the situation. She hissed at Stonks whenever he got close. And I thought Stonks handled it well but it must have been thinking, "What's your problem?" Mystic is a classic bully. She's afraid of almost everything otherwise. Here's a picture I got that actually shows all three of them!

But as much as Mystic would always hiss if Stonks got too close, when Bill left in September for the next week Mystic would meow while walking around the house which was not normal. It was because Mystic actually missed Stonks and was just wondering where it was. But she would get to see Stonks again. When we drive to and from AZ we always stop in Denver to visit Bill and will stay with him for two nights. It's a long drive before and after so it's good to have an entire day off from driving. But of course we have our cats in tow. So about a month later the 3 cats were reunited, if only for a little while. Then in spring they were all together again, although by that time Stonks had filled out considerably, as you can see by the picture below at the left.

It's a nice thought that after so many years when Debbie got a cat from Bill that she returned the favor!

Postscript: A few months later Debbie received a call from the cats former owner wondering how the cat was doing. Remember that the cat really wasn't hers, so we suspect it was the person who gave her the cat who was wondering. Debbie said it was doing fine with her son who is now in Denver. The way Debbie now says how she answered that question, "He changed his name and moved to Denver!"

Stonks is now back in Lake Mills because Bill bought a house very nearby! I am always happy to help Bill out to watch Stonks when he's gone. Stonks is still a real people cat.

 

Continue to the Story of Portia