This is one seriously pissed-off cat

Well, if someone had just stuffed you into a cage, hauled you off to the vet's office and had them cut off your balls, wouldn't you be too? I thought so.

Happy CatBlogging Friday, everyone. Here's an update to my earlier post three weeks ago about our neighborhood feline visitor. Kitty has been increasingly more friendly and playful, and finally overcame his fear enough to allow me to handle him regularly. Still, not knowing if he had any communicable diseases, it was necessary to shut our other two cats in the back bedroom temporarily whenever we let him in to feed him. So, we decided that yesterday would be the day of reckoning. After one botched attempt, I was able to get him in the cat carrier and to the vet, who determined that he was, in fact, male (with the long fur, we hadn't been sure), was FLV-negative, and mostly healthy other than for a few fleas. Our vet is sympathetic to the plight of ferals, and after we paid for the exam and vaccinations he offered to neuter him for free, which was very nice of him.

A few hours later it was a done deal, but things did not go so well after we got home. Once out of the carrier, Kitty immediately made a lunge for the back door, smacking headlong into the glass. He then scrambled up the drapes, and stayed there for the next two hours. Efforts to feed and reassure him were only partially successful, and we decided that the best course would probably be to let him back outside until he calmed down.

That was yesterday afternoon. We haven't seen him since.

We are hoping that he will forgive us and come back once he gets hungry again, but we realize there's a chance he may never return. He did seem to enjoy the affection earlier in the week, so maybe that will overcome his wild instinct. We'll be very sad if not - we've gotten quite attached to him in the month he's been hanging out with us - but we can take some comfort in knowing that at least we took one small step to help cut down on the huge number of feral kittens born each year, and that by getting his shots he has a slightly better chance of staying healthy.

One other CatBlogging item of note: here's an article about recent studies on the evolution of early predatory felines into "the cat that has induced people to pay for its board and lodging in return for frugal displays of affection", i.e., the domestic house cat. Researchers have new insight into how the species developed, migrating to new continents as sea levels rose and fell. Cats are natural roamers, which doesn't give us much encouragement that our friend will be back, but it's still an interesting read.

In closing, here's a couple of pictures from last week. We'll leave the back porch light on for him, just in case.