Tiger had an interesting day. Hey! If the distinguished Gerard Van der Leun can put up They said, “If you get a cat you’ll become obsessed.” I said, “Nonsense.” I can put up a post about Tiger’s day. Not that I can’t post whatever I want, just sayin’. The cat video is hilarious. Ghostsniper’s folk psychological account of cats & humans is insightful. And true.

I searched for Tiger. (The first 9 or so are explicitly about Tiger’s becoming part of our One Big Redneck Family.) Turns out he found us in May of ’15. Scrawny little thing– hobbling, so malnourished his eyes were crossed. Not truly feral as he clearly wanted to “enter our personal sphere” (as ghostsniper would say). After Miss M nursed him back to something resembling health, we took him to the vet who explained that the moving nodules under his skin were BB pellets.

He’s come a long way.

On account of the coyotes, and the fact that he’s a (fixed) lover, not a fighter, he cannot deal with the truly feral cats who pass through The Farm from time to time. So come sundown, we tuck him into the workshop, and depending on the weather and temperature, let him out at some point in the morning. If it’s too cold (he has a double-walled insulated box pointed at the south facing window) or too hot (the workshop has a window unit A/C set at a pleasant 75F) he stays in there most of the day.

Today was rainy, but neither too cold nor too hot, so Tiger spent most of the day hanging out on the patio which connects, by way of a common roofline, the Big House and the Bunkhouse. Some years ago, Daughter C designed and built a 3-story condominium on the patio for Tiger. The lowest floor has vinyl tile, the two upper floors are carpeted. This is Tiger’s refuge when a quick storm blows up. The condo has its own patio within a patio.

Three things of note about Tiger’s day.

One: The Sheep. I am trying to make friends with The Sheep. They are now eating out of my hands. I went into their pasture yesterday and they came bounding toward me! Today I went to a different spot along the fence and called them. Again, they came! They ate out of my hands. And then they startled and backed away. Tiger. Tiger meowing and wanting to eat the sheep pellets I’m feeding the sheep. Like Tiger is starving to death, as he once was. They will settle into a pattern. I’ll feed the sheep, Tiger will eat from the Tupperware containing sheep food, and the sheep will ignore Tiger.

Two: Tiger has an interesting relationship with Rocky. Rocky ignores Tiger except when Tiger rubs against Rocky’s backside as Rocky is doing his late evening business. Tiger? What were you thinking? Missy to the rescue.

Three: See above. Tiger so wants to be inside and that is not going to happen. Mr. Big Food collected his stuff and moved from the Bunkhouse into the kitchen and no one noticed that Tiger had snuck in until Rocky noticed that Tiger was feasting on his– Rocky’s– leftovers. And then all hell broke loose.

Stupid cat.