Got home from work yesterday, after stopping at the grocery store, and as I unpacked the car I left the back hatch open for easy access to the groceries. This is pretty normal for me. About the only thing I usually have to worry about is mosquitos.
After all the groceries were in the house I took a minute to unpack the cold stuff and get it into the fridge so that I could then take my little collapsable cooler back out to the car where I leave it.
Tossed the cooler into the trunk area, and slammed the hatch.
And immediately something started ping-ponging against the insides of the doors. It was moving so fast I couldn’t even get a solid look at it and my first thought was that a squirrel had climbed into the car.
It finally stopped moving long enough for me to get a good look and I realized I was looking at a dark blue and white patterned cat. Husband saw it wandering through the back yard a few days ago, but neither of us had seen it up close.
It was so freaked out that there was no way I was catching it. I opened the back driver side door and it completely ignored the door to continue to ping-pong off every other surface.
I eventually had to open BOTH back doors and the hatch before the completely freaked out cat could find an exit.
Looks reasonably well cared for.
I really wish the local folks would stop it with the “outdoor kitty” thing. I’ve had to listen to more than one cat scream as its killed by the local wildlife. Its really not my idea of fun. We rarely see these outdoor cats for more than a couple months. Then they disappear and we stop seeing them. Not only do we have a fairly large amount of traffic in the area, we also have outdoor dogs in various yards, not to mention giant coyotes, foxes, fisher cats, mink, all of whom are capable of taking down your average cat. These aren’t barn cats, who generally stay pretty close to their home turf. These are someone’s pet who’s allowed to roam, and I really wish my neighbors would stop, essentially, feeding them to the coyotes.
People don’t realize how dangerous it is for outdoor cats. Although I have had cats that were indoor/outdoor, the generally stayed in the yard, and I tried to make sure they were in at night. Additionally, since we had large dogs, other dogs, foxes and coyotes tended to avoid our yard. The cats could also get into the dog pen to be safe – or just to socialize. Nothing quite like opening the dog pen to bring the dogs into the house after work and having cats come out too 😀
Now that I am on a well traveled road, I am glad that I have the dog pen out the back door so Fuzzy can go out and not have to worry about anything. Had a large fox go thru the yard one night a couple of weeks ago while Fuzzy was out, and was doubly glad of the fence between the vulpine and feline.
It drives me nuts. Ok sure, I’d not have seen the foxes, fisher cat, or the mink, if I didn’t have the trail cameras, but the coyotes trot through my yard in daylight! I saw a youngster apparently bunny hunting just last week!