There were 2 stray cats that always lived around my house. One was mostly black and a bit white, just a bit chunky, green eyes, and aggressive. Whenever anyone would get near her, she would hiss at them. Her hair was all over the place and she always seemed dirty. The other was hazel colored and she was the opposite: very cowardly and much cleaner. And although they weren't always together, the few times I would see them together they would get along. They wouldn't play with each other, but they would ignore one another. The black cat, however, wouldn't react the same with my dog. My dog was just a slight bit bigger than her, but if he got near, she would hiss at him and he'd back off. Always have.
My family got into the habit of buying cat food for them. We would always leave the food outside in the front porch. And after a few hours, we'd walk out to see the food eaten. We could never give the cats their food upfront. The black cat would always hiss at me when I'm only trying to feed her. I'd be lying if I said I never had the urge to kick the cat because of it's extreme distrust towards me. And the hazel cat just wouldn't get near her food, for as long as I would be near it myself. We would see the hazel cat everyday, but would see the black cat about every 3 or 4 days.
We thought about bringing them inside the house, but we didn't like the idea of having stray cats in our house dirtying up the furniture and everything. They wouldn't ever get close to us, anyways. And so, they never entered our house. But the time came when the black cat seemed to have disappeared. There was about a month's time where no one in the family saw her. The hazel cat was always here though.
But by the end of the month, the black cat came back... but differently. She was dirtier than before. One of her eyes was scratched and always 90% closed. When I saw her, she approached me, but stopped a couple feet away from me. She meowed... but it wasn't one of those "cute" meows. This one sounded scared. There was a bit of a tremble in it's sound. I had mistakenly left a door open, which allowed my dog to sneak out and approach her. Right as he did, I called out to him to back off, but the most unexpected thing happened. No hiss. My dog moved towards the black cat to smell her, but she didn't even give my dog any attention. She kept looking up at me... meowing.
She was done fighting. She couldn't be aggressive if she wanted to. She could barely see. She just wanted food. She just wanted help. Her eyes, her hair color pattern, her size, it was all the same. This was the same black cat. But in that past month's time... she went through some shit. I was the first to see her like this. I ran into my house to get her food. I came back and slowly approached her. She sat there, still looking at me. Meowing. Ironically enough, I wanted to hear her hiss at me. I felt as though her hissing at me would mean she's fine and if she wouldn't than she wasn't. But she didn't. I knelt down in front of her and set the food on the floor. She began eating it.
I spoke to my mother about the cat and we decided to take her to a vet. We already had a cage for our dog, so we put her food there. When she walked in, we closed the gate and took her to the vet. Unfortunately, the vet told us that she was incredibly sick and there was really nothing they could do. Her pain was permanent. They said all that could be done would be to put her down to end her suffering. And that's what we did.
I felt like shit. We all did. The black cat had always seemed really dirty before, but we never did anything about it. We only gave her food. But we never took the chance to see if she could have been helped beforehand. And maybe things wouldn't have been so bad for her later down the line. I didn't want the black cat's death to just... be. I wanted to change something. I wasn't sure what, but I wanted to earn the trust of the last stray cat. The hazel one.
I spent weeks trying to get closer to the cat. I would set food on the floor outside, walk back a couple of steps, and sit on the floor. The hazel cat would approach the food slowly and eat. I'd inch my way closer to her, but sooner or later, she'd run away thinking I would hurt her. It became a regular thing that I did every day with her. It lasted about a week or so, but the day came when I inched my way right in front of her and she kept eating, but intimidated. I had some fish that my mom made in my hand and I reached it out to her, slowly. She smelled it and ate it. And she allowed me to pet her, right after. The first time I ever could. After I earned her trust, she started becoming a bit more skeptical about others trying to hurt her. She would approach the rest of my family just a bit more, thinking they weren't all bad. And the day came where she started expressing curiosity to what was inside our house. That was the next goal.
We named her "Mishu" (Mee·shoo). I placed food inside my house, with the door wide open and Mishu slowly made her way in, after some days of attempts. She started eating her food inside our house. And after Mishu was done eating, she'd wait near the door she entered through for us to open it. She'd then leave. And her bond with my family would improve throughout the years.
And now... in my morning dog walks, Mishu walks with us, as well. I don't give her a leash or anything. She's extremely cautious about crossing roads. It's a very good quality from her having been such a cowardly cat. Besides, where we live, we rarely have any cars come by. And she comes into our house every day. Mishu only ever leaves our property if my family is taking my dog out for a walk. If we aren't, then she's always around or inside our house. Sometimes even on the roof of our house. I still don't have the slightest clue how she makes it up there, but I've seen her on top of our house many times, before.
Mishu is sleeping in my room most nights, on a chair... Although I have, a couple of times, woken up to find her sleeping next to me, on my bed. I'd have to change all the sheets and everything, immediately after. She's still a stray cat, after all. But she prefers it that way. Mishu doesn't want to be caged in, she wants to stay outside a lot. Sure, she doesn't explore, but she prefers being outside and around our house.
Mishu's been in our family for over 5 years now, I think. Here's a picture of our stray cat, Mishu, and our dog, Onyx :)
have a colony of ferals I take care of. all have been spayed or neutered . they get plenty of food and I have a heated shed out back for them to be dry and warm
