Can't get Tinka and Amy to stay the night...

Tinka is a beautiful longhair calico we rescued as a tiny  kitten about a year ago. she knows she's a beauty and has a very short temper - we're only allowed to touch her head, one inch below her neck and she'll make you wish you didn't... i know she doesn't like the other cats and since she's hardly here, (she comes in for meals a couple of times a day) the others are not familiar with her and react kind of funny... when she comes in I make sure she eats undisturbed and then she lets me pat her head... I just tried to talk her into staying, it's raining and it's cold, but she won't listen...

the same goes for Amy - she's a bit older, a shorthair calico,  she never stays in for long... We worry constantly that something might happen to them and know that there's nothing we can do - but it's so frustrating!! Goldie (after Goldie Hawn) was as problematic until she developed an abscess under her chin, the vet treated her and prescribed forced sick leave  - now it's been almost a month and we're thrilled that she no longer feels like sprinting away... she's as lively as a fiddle and stays in one room all day long

I mean the others (for those of you not yet familiar with me - we have 16 cats) too have their issues with one another but they settle it and life goes on...

Thanks for reading - have a great Thanksgiving time everyone

They sound beautiful. I can imagine Tinka as this gorgeous high and mighty calico   Any chance of seeing pictures? 

Sounds to me like they're at least semi-feral? Have they ever spent the night indoors? If you want to get a feral cat to become an indoor-cat you need to go through a process of socialization first. It does sound like they're not entirely feral, as you can touch them and feed them inside. 

Also, how cold is it outside where you live? Not every feral cat should be brought inside. It might be better to build them a proper shelter out there. It may also be better for the 16 cats already living under your roof?

Though there's no snow it can get bitter cold at night and early morning hours. I now leave one window open wide enough for them to go through... 

Tinka came in very early this morning and since we had to leave for work I left her with food drink and litter box - alone in one of the rooms. There's a very comfortable bed in the room, baskets with blankets etc. but this lady spends the entire time under the bed, either on the floor or on the large shoe container underneath... It's early afternoon now and she's still here... so I took a couple of photos which I hope give an idea of how beautiful she is (to us at least...)

She seems to be in a rather kind mood today as i was allowed to pat her for quite a while and she kept pressing herself against me  she needs some in depth grooming/combing and though I'm tempted to put on my gloves, I'm really counting my blessings!!! I don't want her to hate me and stay away for days....  She lets me know when she's had enough of our company and wants to be let out so I guess that if she's still here it can't be that bad   

It's always a worry when they stay out like that, but in time they might decide to stay indoors more. Could you put a cat flap in the window you're now leaving open? That would cut down on heating bills a bit. We had to do that with a feral we adopted years ago. Straycat used to come and go as he pleased, but the longer he was with us (6 years), the more often he'd spend time indoors (sleeping in the washer!). He used to bring friends home for breakfast - sometimes I'd go to the laundry room to feed him and find 6 - 8 extra mouths. The farthest we got with him was my being allowed to stroke his head, though he'd follow my husband around the yard and supervise the gardening.

The TinCan Opener is beautiful!!!!

Looks a bit like our Moish used to...

Friends for breakfast - great!!! I love that!!!!

Ours "tolerate" strays - they don't bring

them home... 

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Tinka is beautiful! Here in Germany calicos are known as "Glückskatzen", which means "lucky cats".

The cat in my avatar is our Mo(w)gli. We adopted him from the local shelter in March 2013, when he was 9 months old. He's really a dream cat - smart, friendly and easy to handle. His only faults are that he steals food, especially bread, and chews like a puppy. :lol3:

German is meine Vatersprache (Father'tongue) and our 1st cat, Moish, was from the Berlin shelter when it was still in Lankwitz..., don't know if you live in Berlin of course... here are 2 photos of our beautiful adorable Moish

a.k.a. Moishetier among many other names

Gorgeous! We're in the Stuttgart area (SW). Our town only seems to have black, gray tabby, and white cats with gray spots, with an occasional calico thrown in. It must have an extremely small gene pool.

Gorgeous! We're in the Stuttgart area (SW). Our town only seems to have black, gray tabby, and white cats with gray spots, with an occasional calico thrown in. It must have an extremely small gene pool.

German isn't "meine Muttersprache", though we speak it at home because my husband is German. I'm an American ex-pat.

my husband is German too so we also speak only German at home.... is SW for Schwarzwald (Black Forest)???

BEAUTIFUL region!!! Which town do you live in?? Can you speak Schwaebisch

Don't know if you saw my other post about our cats we lost to FIP - Dear Moishetier has been gone for almost 3 years now...

Enjoy the  langer Samstag today

Sorry, SW stands for Southwest. We're east of Stuttgart, in the Remstal. I don't speak Schwäbisch, but I understand most of it. My husband always speaks High German, but his parents can't, and I know plenty of mostly older people who can only speak the dialect.

We don't have "langer Samstag" any more. Baden- Württemberg relaxed the opening hours laws back in the 80s, so stores could remain open on Saturdays till 6:30 p.m.. Nowadays they can stay open over lunch and till 10 p.m. , but most close earlier, with supermarkets open till 8:30.

I saw the thread about FIP. It's a horrible disease.

Till late in the 90s the langer Samstag was still a very big issue in Brandenburg... but I guess you guys down in BW were always more hochentwickelt / sophisticated...)