A Cat Comes Out of the Woods
The Story of Tigger
2023
We made it through 2022 without anything happening. I did see from a side window of our bedroom a cat coming and then headed toward the back to the screen porch. I was watching with Portia and she was decidely excited seeing another cat. When it disappeared Portia darted to the porch and I followed, but it didn't stick around. It just kept going. One measure of Portia's excitement was she went to that window much more than usual for the next two weeks, hoping to maybe see that cat or another.
The summer of 2023 was uneventful without a single sighting. That is, until the early morning of Sept. 21st, a Thursday. This was almost 3 weeks before we would be heading to Arizona. It was sometime past midnight and we could hear what sort of sounded like cat meows out our window to the screen porch, but it was a weird sound, one like I've never heard before. We had to check it out so we went out to the porch where it became obvious it was a two-cat chorus. My first thought was that there must be two cats out there. But it soon became clear that there was only one cat outside and the other meow was our own Portia meowing back. She's always so quiet so it's unusual when you hear her.
I turned on the porch light (which is inside the porch) and could see what looked like a somewhat small brownish cat with stripes. I decided I would open the door and step out. There was a good chance the cat would run away, but it did't and instead rubbed its body against my leg. This was clearly a friendly cat and not feral. We got it some water and food and went back to bed.
In the morning I took a look and there was no cat, just Portia sitting on the bench. But later the cat was suddenly there at the porch screen
door. Once again, more food and water and the cat was affectionate. We both thought it was a beautiful looking cat with its stripes. We both
agreed it appeared to be a male and within an hour Debbie decided to start calling it Tigger. Unfortunately there was no collar. Tigger though small (like
Portia) was not a kitten and I figured it was full grown. The odds of it being someone's cat seemed low.
Below, left image is the picture we posted to the Lake Mills Community page on Facebook to see if it might be a missing cat.
Tigger eating
Portia enamored with Tigger
Tigger finished eating
Another Cat Appears
Portia was genuinely excited to see this cat. And as we waited for someone to hopefully claim little Tigger, the excitement would escalate
only two hours later when another cat approached from the south so not directly out of the woods! It was not only small, it seemed a little weird
that it was the same size as Tigger. Our thought was these two were sibblings. Debbie thought this cat was a female
and immediately came up with the name Juliet.
So it was once again off to Facebook to post a picture and the moment I check there's yet another small cat list listed that someone had just found and turned into the local police department. At this point it seemed too much a coincidence and one response on Facebbok agreed, "So many small cats this morning. It seems like this was a kitten dump." It sounded reasonable, except that these three cats did not have the overly big ears of a kitten. The cats had to be at least 6 months old.
The fun with the two cats, however, would not last. Soon Juliet took off back in the direction she came and Tigger followed
and quickly the two were out of sight. For a while that seemed the end of it, but a full hour later Tigger was back
but without Juliet. More food (kibble) as Tigger was still really hungry. But water was another issue as he didn't seem
to touch it. Later in the day I found out the reason was he liked drinking water out of the bird bath! Portia continued to love the sight of Tigger
and would lay on her back by the screen with Tigger on the other side. The day ended with nothing from Facebook. I wasn't surprised.
The evening was uneventful and in the morning soon Tigger was at the door.
Most of the day was me seeing how much food Tigger could scarf down
and checking Facebook for anything. Debbie thought it was okay to let it into the porch which was effortless with a dish of food.
But the lesson we learned that day was that Tigger was fine being in the screen porch until he suddenly wasn't. I found him climbing the screen
to the top of the rafters in an effort to find a way out. I ran to grab a 6-foot step ladder, but by the time I got back Debbie had retrieved
Tigger with a simple step-stool.
In the early afternoon I would catch a glimpse of Juliet in the woods. But as soon as Tigger saw her he headed toward her and they both headed north deeper into the woods. I tried to follow, but could not catch up. That would be my last sighting of Juliet.
But this day otherwise showed us that this was a friendly cat. Though he wouldn't jump up on your lap, if you picked it up and didn't seem to mind and loved being petted as you see in the photo at the left. It was beginning to feel like a replay of what happened with Portia just 2 years previous. However, the big difference is that we now had three cats and a fourth was simply out of the question. How could we travel with 4 cats? And there was the additional issue that Portia has FIV. So we couldn't really keep it and we only had maybe two weeks to hopefully find a good home for this lovable cat. If we couldn't we'd be left with the two unthinkable options that we faced with Portia: leave her out to fend for itself knowing that winter was soon coming, or take it to the Human Society where I didn't like the odds of it finding someone who would like to adopt it. A thought that kept running through my mind was that this wouldn't be an issue if we lived here year round.
A Glimmer of Hope For a Happy Ending
Sometime during late Friday our neighbors who share our 2-unit condo arrived for the weekend. They live in Illinois and come up most weekends, but not all. And occasionally they will stay the week. They bought their unit only about a year before we did so they've been with us a while. They have a very friendly girl, Emersyn, who will often talk with us. One memorable time she asked us, "Is this your vacation home? This is our vacation home!" We were simply stunned and couldn't really answer her question. Yes, in a way it was a vacation home, but not like hers. I think we stammered and more or less told her yes. The family had only recently had another baby girl so now Emersyn had a sister. They had a cat for a long time, but it had passed on.
Saturday morning started as it did the day before with a quiet night and then Tigger at the porch door looking for a meal, which we had
now set up inside the porch. Tigger came in, eat, explored a little, and then I let it out when it appeared that's what he wanted. I now looked
for any climbing onto the screens as the sign it wanted out. It seemed to Debbie every time he was let out may be the last.
Tigger would be back in just a few hours and by that time Debbie was out front talking with Emersyn. When told that there was a new cat hanging around, she was excited at the prospect of seeing it. I went out to tell them and she ran through her house to get to the back. It was definitely love at first sight! The rest of the family then comes out and an amazing conversation starts about them possibly taking the cat! They're going to lunch and will discuss it. When they finally return they've purchased a carrier, litter, etc. I was pretty euphoric.
The day ended with them taking in the cat and we were so relieved. Not only did we find a great home for Tigger, but we would get to see him every now and then. In the morning it was back to my normal routine of getting up around 6:00, checking on Portia who's almost always on the porch, making the coffee, and feeding the cats. Then there was Tigger and after he sees me he comes to the porch door. My heart sunk as I knew something must have gone wrong. I would find out later that it didn't go well. Our neighbor, Mike, got scratched pretty bad bringing in Tigger and it was clear to him this was not going to work out. Then none of us thought about the possibility that it didn't know how to use a litter box!
That afternoon playing with Tigger I detected a slight change and he was definitely more aggressive. I could still pick him up and pet him,
but I needed to be careful. A day or two later he actually bit me, drawing a bit of blood! However, there were no issues with Debbie
and day by day she was liking Tigger more. She especially like stroking the cat with a special hand glove grooming device that Tigger just
loved.
We were now letting Tigger come into the porch whenever possible. Portia was still fascinated with Tigger and we felt comfortable leaving the two of them on the porch. But we kept the door closed and I would check to see if Portia wanted back into the house. But Tigger wanted out by the night and would go to wherever his special resting place was. It made me wonder if maybe it was the same place used by Portia 2 years previous. Through Facebook, Debbie had another person interested in the cat if it's available, but balks when they're told it's not litter trained. So now we needed to get Tigger litter trained!
Tuesday was a big turnaround day as it started to rain which was going to continue for 3 days and nights. It was now clear Tigger didn't like the rain and was content to stay on the dry porch. Then Debbie started putting dirt into the litter box to see if we could see if Tigger would start using it. With the cat staying in the porch for a long period of time (I would let it out in the morning, but within an hour would be back) we could see if it went elsewhere on the porch, but there was no evidence.
I made a nice place for Tigger to sleep by putting two chairs together and a blank over the two. Debbie put out an assortment of cat toys and Tigger especially liked the banana with catnip inside. And I moved one of our webcams to the porch and had it in a position where I could see if Tigger was on the chair sleeping. This was a big difference than my vigils over Portia getting up and having to get out of bed. Now I could just check the webcam app and seeing him sleep, I could sleep. By Thursday I witnessed Tigger using the litter box!
On Friday the rain had cleared and inform the interested individual that it is now using a litter box, but nothing but crickets. The individual
must have changed their minds. It seemed like things were going great, but then there was some large noisy truck nearby and
it really scared Tigger and he wanted out! And we felt we had to let it out because it was climbing up the screens in order to find an exit!
Debbie felt it was gone for good, but I never thought that. It came back, but still had severe trust issues. It basically was just coming in
(after pausing for a long time) to eat and not wanting to go more than 8 feet from the door. But by nightfall it was there
and just opening the door came in as if nothing happened earlier in the day. I sent another message to our neighbors about the good progress,
but felt I had to mention the incident with the loud noise. The real purpose of the message, however, was to let them know we'd
be gone almost the entire day on Saturday. We be visiting Jen and Mark and the grandkids at the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois.
On Sunday we talk with our neighbors who are not interested, but haven't ruled out taking the cat. We let them know the cat is now litter trained and Debbie thinks the aggression will go away when the cat is neutered. I tell Mike a good plan is if we have to take the cat to the Humane Society they'd get a free check up, shots and neutering. But I'm really skeptical of taking the cat there as I fear it will be a death sentence.
So day after day it was pretty much a routine and every day as Debbie bonded with Tigger ever more, I knew that taking it to the Humane Society was going to be difficult. Tigger was the cat she thought she was getting when we adopted Portia. From time to time she would talk about the impracticality of bringing Tigger to Arizona. I couldn't get the thought out of my head that this was mean. We're only getting Tigger set up for a car ride to an unknown fate.
October 4th - A Trip to the Humane Society
Our wish for a happy ending for Tigger ended as this was the day Debbie decided we needed to take him to the Jefferson County Humane Society.
She felt it was now too close to the day we needed to be heading to Arizona and we needed the time.
We knew exactly where it was, but neither of us had actually been there and entered.
Tigger initially didn't like the carrier but as soon as the car moved Tigger seemed completely
calm. Debbie was still dreaming about keeping it and commented that it would be a good traveler. Because Tigger loved getting combed with
the special grooming glove, she thought it should be brought along with the cat. Even though I knew this was going to be tough
and emotional, I wasn't completely ready. We filled out the entry form and when we were finished, a young girl took Tigger in the carrier
back to the quarantine area and would return
with our carrier when she was done. We then looked around at a couple of display areas and there were so many cats! It was depressing from the
standpoint that Tigger would be competing against these other cats! My other thought is that I couldn't work or volunteer here because we'd have
dozens of cats.
Jefferson County Humane Society
Humane Society reception area
Adoptable cats in display room
We drove away wondering if we had made the right decision, but it still seemed like it was the only decision. Our backyard visitor was now in the care of professionals and the only question was whether someone would find this cat more special than all the other cats at the facility.
By the next day I was on the Humane Society of Jefferson County website checking on Tigger. I had not visited the site previously! We just knew where it was because we drove past it many times. Day after day I checked and there was nothing. I was hoping it would appear on the cats available for adoption page, but I soon realized that it was considered a Found Cat which meant being on that list as they were going to wait to give an owner time to claim it. But seeing a few cats on that list which were still there after 30 days was definitely discouraging.
It was just a couple of days later when Tigger appeared on the Found Cats list:
Clicking on the Tigger link brought up this page:
There was not a lot of information and we of course knew all of it except for the chip. As we predicted, there was no chip. But one piece of info was wrong. The cat was actually "found" on September 21st. They were reporting when we dropped off the cat. Were we somewhat unique in first trying to find a good home for a stray cat? I went back to the form we signed, but there was not a space to indicate when the cat was found.
So this would start a near daily vigil for me checking the website to see if one of two things were to happen: (1) Tigger just completely disappears from the listings because an owner has claimed him, or (2) Tigger only disappeared from the Found Cat list because they've given a potential owner more than enough time to claim him and because they've heard nothing, they place him on the available list. On October 11th we started our drive to AZ so the vigil would continue while we were in AZ. No picture ever appeared.
The vigil would continue nearly daily until October 26th, 22 days after Tigger was dropped off. He was suddenly missing from the Found Cats page so I anxiiously went to the Adoptable Cats page and there he was!
It was great to see Tigger again and wasted no time clicking on the link to see what detail might be there.
Click/tap here or on the image to see a larger view.
The information sounded great! Here's what it says:
Hi, I'm Tigger - Reduced Fee!!
I'm a 2 year old neutered male brown tabby Domestic Short Hair
- Estimated to be about 2 years old
- Neutered male
- Outgoing and affectionate
- Gets along with other cats
I'm an extremely handsome boy who definitely knows I'm a looker. I am sweet, affectionate, and outgoing, and I love to be petted and lay on your lap. I'm good with other cats and am just an all-around great guy. If you're looking for a super affectionate companion, you really need to meet me!
With the Pumpkin Spice and Black as Night promotion my adoption fee is half price during the month of October!
My adoption fee is $40.
I have been neutered, vacinnated, microchipped, and I've received routine treatment for internal and external parasites.
The big surprise was they thought Tigger was 2 years old! The listing made Tigger sound really great (actually exceptional) until I started reading other available cats that had almost the same script. But I wasted no time alerting our neighbors about the availability along with a link to the listing. The timing seemed good because they would be in Lake Mills on Saturday. I was hoping to hear anything back, but there was nothing. On the other hand these cats can be available for months so maybe they weren't coming that weekend and assumed they had plenty of time.
I checked on Friday and then early Saturday and the listing was there. But then Sunday morning I looked and suddenly Tigger's listing was gone! How could it be that he was adopted so quickly? A very reasonable assumption is that our neighbors did actually adopt Tigger, but I had heard nothing. But my overwhelming feeling was one of relief. He was adopted and we had the happy ending we were hoping for. Day after day I would wait for anything from our neighbors, but got nothing and I didn't want to inquire. If they were the adoptees, we'd eventually know. I would also keep checking that website to see if the adoption didn't work out and they had returned Tigger. But Tigger never returned so I have to assume the adoption worked out.
It would have been nice to find out who adopted Tigger, but we're happy that Tigger has apparently found a good home.
While checking on the possible return of Tigger, I note that so far Juliet has not appeared! However, there has been a cat posted at that humane society called Frisbee (Shelter Name) that was turned in the right time frame that has been on the Lost list since being turned in on 9/28/2023 within a half mile of our home. Unfortunately there's no indication of why it's never shown up on the reguar adoption list and there's no photo. I'm guessing that the problem is that the cat has FIV and therefore not allowed to be with the other cats. That cat would remain on that list for nearly 6 months. It would never appear on the cats available for adoption.
2023 Ends On a Sad Note
He made the long drive from WI to AZ in October, but he was tired all the time and basically slept the entire time we were in the car. And then we noticed that his abdomen was starting to seriously bloat. By November he was really bad and made an appointment, this time with our vet in Arizona. The prognosis was not good, but we got a prescription for a steriod that should make movement easier. But the pills could not work because then he stopped eating. Every morning when we woke up we were prepared, but he still held on. But then he stopped drinking. We could not bare seeing him suffer so made the painful decision on November 28th to take him to our vet so we could relieve his pain. We were with him when he passed.
An Arizona Cat Comes To The Backyard
Just before the end of 2023, we got a treat: a Bobcat strolled through the yard and passed near the window where Portia sits looking at all the birds
we get because we put out food for them. Portia's reaction was exactly the same as if it was a stray cat coming by in Wisconsin: excitement! After
walking by the window, the Bobcat jumped up on the cinder block fence which is about 8 feet high and stayed there for almost a minute all the while
with Portia enamored at the sight. After the Bobcat disappeared, Portia staired at where she last saw it for the next 15 minutes.
The picture of the Bobcat is not particularly good because it's taken through a sunscreen which all the windows have on our Arizona house. I couldn't really get a decent picture of the Bobcat on the wall because the angle would not permit it and to really get a shot at a great picture would mean I'd have to go outside. But I knew that wouldn't work because the Bobcat would immediately flee and thus spoil Portia's fun.