Hi all, I hope this is OK. My first post turned into one more about questions on behavior and not so much an introduction so I will try again. Tiki is my first cat and my first pet since a couple family dogs back high school in the 70’s.
This is the saga of Tiki the Cat
Back in late Feb/early March there was a small Siamese cat that was hanging around my house that I was pretty sure was homeless. He was very, VERY wary of people and would bolt when anyone went near him. I'd see him very early in the morning and very late at night and one night I found him sleeping under my bedroom window at about 3:00 am. I didn’t think he had a home and choose my yard because I don't have a dog or noisy college kids. He looked reasonably clean but was very skinny, and this may not have been a great idea, but I started putting on a small bowl of food for him (actually Friskies treats because I didn't notice the difference between treats and food). I've never been a pet person, (but my friend's animals all seem to like me), so I'm wasn’t sure what I needed to do to help him. After a few weeks he had gotten to the point where if I would sit outside and I was reasonably still he would let me pet him and he would even climb on my lap on occasion. When I let him in the house and he didn't freak out, but he kept his distance from me, on the other hand he didn't get too far away from me either. Usually around 9:00/9:30 he would paw at the door and I’d let him out and off he’d go. A few days later he was very “late” for dinner and me being a softy that I am, let him in after we sat on the patio for a while and that night he didn’t want to leave when I opened the door. So I made a make-shift litter box (an old plastic tote with and end cut down with a couple of inches of loose dirt), he used right away and he ended up sleeping on me all night. I had to go to work in the morning and when I put him out in he didn’t wander too far from the door.
The weekend before Memorial Day I took him to the vet and had him checked for a chip, they said he had no chip and they thought he was about 8 months old. I checked around the neighborhood and Craig’s list and the local humane society to see if anyone had reported him missing with no luck. I kept leaving food out for him, I even had a friend check on him while I was out of town for Memorial Day weekend. When I got back I talked to the humane society again they suggested TNR, but I thought I wanted to keep him and make him an inside cat. So I had him fixed and got shots and they found he had a bad case of worms and they dealt with that too.
He seems to be adjusting pretty well to living inside, sometimes he climbs the screen door and will paw at a door wanting to go out but he doesn’t do that much anymore. I am learning that whole “curiosity killed the cat” is a real thing, he gets in to everything and is probably too smart for his own good.
Here are some more pictures of Tiki the cat because I like showing off
Here he is after being home for about a week
And here he is from a couple days ago
and one hanging out in his favorite spot
This is the saga of Tiki the Cat
Back in late Feb/early March there was a small Siamese cat that was hanging around my house that I was pretty sure was homeless. He was very, VERY wary of people and would bolt when anyone went near him. I'd see him very early in the morning and very late at night and one night I found him sleeping under my bedroom window at about 3:00 am. I didn’t think he had a home and choose my yard because I don't have a dog or noisy college kids. He looked reasonably clean but was very skinny, and this may not have been a great idea, but I started putting on a small bowl of food for him (actually Friskies treats because I didn't notice the difference between treats and food). I've never been a pet person, (but my friend's animals all seem to like me), so I'm wasn’t sure what I needed to do to help him. After a few weeks he had gotten to the point where if I would sit outside and I was reasonably still he would let me pet him and he would even climb on my lap on occasion. When I let him in the house and he didn't freak out, but he kept his distance from me, on the other hand he didn't get too far away from me either. Usually around 9:00/9:30 he would paw at the door and I’d let him out and off he’d go. A few days later he was very “late” for dinner and me being a softy that I am, let him in after we sat on the patio for a while and that night he didn’t want to leave when I opened the door. So I made a make-shift litter box (an old plastic tote with and end cut down with a couple of inches of loose dirt), he used right away and he ended up sleeping on me all night. I had to go to work in the morning and when I put him out in he didn’t wander too far from the door.
The weekend before Memorial Day I took him to the vet and had him checked for a chip, they said he had no chip and they thought he was about 8 months old. I checked around the neighborhood and Craig’s list and the local humane society to see if anyone had reported him missing with no luck. I kept leaving food out for him, I even had a friend check on him while I was out of town for Memorial Day weekend. When I got back I talked to the humane society again they suggested TNR, but I thought I wanted to keep him and make him an inside cat. So I had him fixed and got shots and they found he had a bad case of worms and they dealt with that too.
He seems to be adjusting pretty well to living inside, sometimes he climbs the screen door and will paw at a door wanting to go out but he doesn’t do that much anymore. I am learning that whole “curiosity killed the cat” is a real thing, he gets in to everything and is probably too smart for his own good.
Here are some more pictures of Tiki the cat because I like showing off
Here he is after being home for about a week
And here he is from a couple days ago
and one hanging out in his favorite spot