Thursday, June 04, 2009
Meet our newest addition: Bizzaro
No, no, not that newest addition.. I was referring to the neighborhood stray/ferral/someone-else's-outdoor-cat-that-just-prefers-our-deck. We noticed him last year when we first moved in. He came around every so often to sunbathe on our deck, chase birds and generally wreak havoc on our two indoor cats who would not bear the sight of another cat on what they considered to be their deck, even though they are indoor and know nothing of the deck.
And it is because of my cats' indoorness that from time to time I'd catch this other cat on our deck out of the corner of my eye and have a moment of sheer panic that my indoor cat had somehow found himself on the deck. All this because of the strange resemblance of outdoor cat to my indoor cat, Bernini. Hence, we have dubbed outdoor cat: Bernini's Bizzaro Twin, aka: Bizzaro.
Meet: Bizzaro. Seen here in his usual environment -- our deck. I think he looks so grumpy because I came out to photograph him and not to bring him his usual dish of food.
Compare to: Bernini. His expression is likely due to the shock that I wasn't at that moment bringing his food out to Bizzaro. And also a slight pleading expression that we not decide to adopt Bizzaro.
They walk alike, they talk alike and at times they even sleep alike. When kitties are two of a kind! Really, this is Bernini keeping close tabs on Bizzaro -- who couldn't be more disinterested in Bernini so long as the food keeps coming.
And that's what's gotten us into trouble. Bizzaro started making regular appearances around Easter. My nieces were here cooing about the new kitty outside, Bizzaro is so damned cute and he sits at our door crying that real "I'm super hungry!" kitty cry (come to think of it, all kitty cries sound like that...). And thus we, well, I, made the first fatal error: I fed him. The Mister duly scolded me for it, but the next day I caught him filling a bowl. And thus it has been even since. We are enablers. We are feeders. And to Bizzaro: we are suckers.
He couldn't be more friendly. He purrs, he does that kitty curly walk around your ankles when you come outside. My nieces, from one weekend with him, are taken with him and ask about him whenever they call. Really, he's like our dirty little ferral kitty secret.
The truth is, we don't know if Bizzaro has another family/families. He wears no collar and is perturbing our cats at all hours from the back deck. Sometimes I hear him as early as 5AM when I'm getting ready for work and we've seen him outside licking himself close to 11PM. We don't let him in the house -- he has no contact with our kitties, in case Bizzaro is really a Typhoid Bizzaro carrying all manner of kitty ailments.
But last night when that monsterous thunderstorm went through, The Mister heard the truly desperate pleas from the back deck -- Bizzaro was stuck in the downpour. He made a snap decision, grabbed Bizzaro and carried him through the house -- with our two cats, completely dumbstruck in horror, following close behind -- to the front porch where Bizzaro could at least be under cover for the duration of the storm. Our cats refused to speak to us for the rest of the night (even though *I* was upstairs and had nothing to do with the Bizzaro transportation..).
With our real new addition close to being a more tangible addition, it is desperately unlikely that we would actually adopt Bizzaro. Plus, I cherish the relationship with our current cats -- no matter how tenuous it is these days because of our consistently daily feeding of Bizzaro. We will likely take Bizzaro to the vet to have him scanned for an owner's microchip ID, and if that fails, we have purchsed a collar to put on Bizzaro with a little note asking the owner to please collar, and hell, FEED, the cat.
In the meantime, however, I have already set aside a little tupperware dish near the door with food in it for Bizzaro -- for whenever he shows up today.
And it is because of my cats' indoorness that from time to time I'd catch this other cat on our deck out of the corner of my eye and have a moment of sheer panic that my indoor cat had somehow found himself on the deck. All this because of the strange resemblance of outdoor cat to my indoor cat, Bernini. Hence, we have dubbed outdoor cat: Bernini's Bizzaro Twin, aka: Bizzaro.
Meet: Bizzaro. Seen here in his usual environment -- our deck. I think he looks so grumpy because I came out to photograph him and not to bring him his usual dish of food.
Compare to: Bernini. His expression is likely due to the shock that I wasn't at that moment bringing his food out to Bizzaro. And also a slight pleading expression that we not decide to adopt Bizzaro.
They walk alike, they talk alike and at times they even sleep alike. When kitties are two of a kind! Really, this is Bernini keeping close tabs on Bizzaro -- who couldn't be more disinterested in Bernini so long as the food keeps coming.And that's what's gotten us into trouble. Bizzaro started making regular appearances around Easter. My nieces were here cooing about the new kitty outside, Bizzaro is so damned cute and he sits at our door crying that real "I'm super hungry!" kitty cry (come to think of it, all kitty cries sound like that...). And thus we, well, I, made the first fatal error: I fed him. The Mister duly scolded me for it, but the next day I caught him filling a bowl. And thus it has been even since. We are enablers. We are feeders. And to Bizzaro: we are suckers.
He couldn't be more friendly. He purrs, he does that kitty curly walk around your ankles when you come outside. My nieces, from one weekend with him, are taken with him and ask about him whenever they call. Really, he's like our dirty little ferral kitty secret.
The truth is, we don't know if Bizzaro has another family/families. He wears no collar and is perturbing our cats at all hours from the back deck. Sometimes I hear him as early as 5AM when I'm getting ready for work and we've seen him outside licking himself close to 11PM. We don't let him in the house -- he has no contact with our kitties, in case Bizzaro is really a Typhoid Bizzaro carrying all manner of kitty ailments.
But last night when that monsterous thunderstorm went through, The Mister heard the truly desperate pleas from the back deck -- Bizzaro was stuck in the downpour. He made a snap decision, grabbed Bizzaro and carried him through the house -- with our two cats, completely dumbstruck in horror, following close behind -- to the front porch where Bizzaro could at least be under cover for the duration of the storm. Our cats refused to speak to us for the rest of the night (even though *I* was upstairs and had nothing to do with the Bizzaro transportation..).
With our real new addition close to being a more tangible addition, it is desperately unlikely that we would actually adopt Bizzaro. Plus, I cherish the relationship with our current cats -- no matter how tenuous it is these days because of our consistently daily feeding of Bizzaro. We will likely take Bizzaro to the vet to have him scanned for an owner's microchip ID, and if that fails, we have purchsed a collar to put on Bizzaro with a little note asking the owner to please collar, and hell, FEED, the cat.
In the meantime, however, I have already set aside a little tupperware dish near the door with food in it for Bizzaro -- for whenever he shows up today.
# posted by Cathy @ 12:46:00 PM 
