Our cats are outside cats during the daytime and garage cats at night. We don't allow them inside our house. They all have their shots and are fixed. These five cats arrived as a group, making us believe they were dumped. There were three tiny kitties, a momma, and a tomcat. The momma cat was extremely outgoing and friendly. The tomcat acts like he was abused and was extremely skittish. There is no real place to take them in this area and we needed some outside cats for rodent control. My wife lost her cat before we were married and has been wanting another. These kitties arrived just at the right time for us to accept them and adopt them. The were a pitiful lot of skinny and hungry kitties.
It has taken a big effort to get the cats healthy and teach them good habits. One of the kittens became ill while it was young. It was too young to have its shots according to the vet. We treated it with two types of antibiotics and finally cured the disease, but his fever was so high that it did some brain damage. He is now uncoordinated enough that he is klutzy. His nickname is Floppy because sometimes his rear end gets away from him and he falls over. He also has a split personality. Some days he will run up to you and meow loudly until you pick him up. Other days, he goes into a defensive posture and will hiss at you if you approach him. We carefully feed him and pet him when he will let us. He's one of the ones who will play rough if you let him.
The tomcat is a solid black cat. He has about doubled size since he first arrived. His coat was ungroomed, but now is thick and long. He has gone from being totally defensive and terrified if you touched him, to being friendly and much more outgoing. He still stiffens up and whimpers for a second or two when you pick him up. If you play with him and rub his belly, he will get his back legs going with his claws partially extended. He will also bite, but not hard. He acts as if he is playing and doesn't know he is doing anything wrong.
The momma cat, Prissy, and Batman are easily the best natured of all the cats. Prissy goes with me to the garden every morning and Batman "helps" me when I'm doing yardwork. They are a joy. We have to be careful not to step on them because they are under our feet so much.
Punkin is a very independent kitty. She does socialize with the other cats, but she also goes her own way a lot. She was very friendly in the beginning and now seems to avoid us at all times except meal times. If there is one kitty that will not come into the garage at night, it's most likely Punkin.
So we have these five little cats and we've really become attached to them. I've never been a cat person, but I admit they are a lot less trouble than a dog. They don't chase cars and they don't have to be trained to use the potty box. They also have brought us a lot of mice "prizes" to show off their hunting skills. Of course, they terrorize our tree lizards too. So far only one bird has been caught. It was a little titmouse that didn't have a lucky day.
