Feral cat discovers air conditioning.
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My Maximus Imperious. I had just told him not to jump down on my head.
And Itty-bitty was determined to clean Hammie’s ears, no matter what he thought!
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Update: I brought him home yesterday! I got impatient waiting for him to finish licking the cat food cans and go into the crate for dry food, so I picked him up and put him in and he didn’t object until I closed the door, at which point he briefly went crazy. But he handled the drive really well. He’s in a bathroom now until he proves litter box use, then I will move him to a storeroom (right off my bedroom) to settle thoroughly.
The poor guy spent all of yesterday afternoon crammed in a 4 inch wide spot between vanity and wall:
But late last night he came out to eat before retreating back to his slot, then by this morning he was staying out, and extremely friendly when I came in and sat with him.
If he’s from the place my sister thinks - “We don’t think he was ever in a house. We think he was born under our neighbor’s shed. There is a female cat who keeps having kittens there and we think he came from one of last year’s litters.” - then he may never have been in a house, though somebody must have played with the kittens.
Also, I did a bunch of reading on color point genetics. It seems to be recessive so he must have gotten it from both both sides. Of course since he’s probably the result of a good bit of inbreeding (his father may be his half brother, and no telling about his father’s father) that’s likely not difficult.
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See, I told you. His color goes with the decor!
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He is a cutie!
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He’s very handsome! I think he’s going to be a sweetheart too. Once he adjusts and gets used to being inside.
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Thanks! And he used the litter box! Given my sister’s best guess about his origins, I’ll bet he had never seen one before. Last night I put him in it and scratched a bit with my fingers but I could tell he wasn’t paying attention. And overnight he peed on a blanket on the floor.
This morning I put the blanket over the edge of the litter box; it was fleece so some of the liquid drained out into the litter before I moved the blanket on to the laundry. Later I put him in the box again, scratched the litter and saw the same lack of comprehension. But then he stood up and turned around which put his nose near the soiled litter - and I saw a lightbulb go on! He scratched tentatively, circled, scratched more seriously and then squatted. Yay!
So now he has an ~18’x25’ space just full of piles of junk to get comfortable in. It’s the same room our 2 “kittens” started off in when we brought them home 4 years (gack!) ago, also from my sister’s thanks to her irresponsible neighbor. In that case it was a female who moved up to my sister’s and had 2 litters before my sister got her spayed (and those kittens fixed - she kept 3 plus mom - or responsibly rehomed). (Litter #2 involved a barn window that didn’t stay latched closed.)
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You are a very good pet parent! Keep the pictures coming!
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Here is the preexisting crew - a very rare occasion that they’re all together, waiting for their supper one day last winter. Buffy (the lickee) really doesn’t like contact with the other cats and jumped down right after Hamilton started grooming her.
Hammy is also from my sister’s, wandered up to her barn hungry and gaunt. He appears to be unrelated to all of the rest of the local crew. My sister didn’t want to give him up, but even after being fixed he continued fighting and is FIV+ so we decided an indoor life with me was in his best interest*. (Allergies preclude an indoor life there.) It’s hard to imagine him as a fighting tom, he is such a marshmallow with the cats here. But he has the scars to prove it.
*I know I should also be worried about cats he might have infected, but the population there is so thoroughly exposed that I don’t think removing him made much difference in that respect.
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I was wondering if one of his parents is pure white with the blue eyes?
He is quite handsome!
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Handsome boy! With those white paws he looks like he could have some Birman blood.
Blue Tabby Point Birman pic:
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How is the handsome new boy? I hope he’s settling in and feeling more comfortable. 
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Who s the grey kitty on the left in the first pic? His face reminds me so much of my Ollie’s - the permanent scowl. Even when they’re actually happy.
I sure miss my boy.
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So cute! How’s Duncan doing, btw?
Yay! So glad you caught him and he’s safely home.
He’s adapting amazingly well. He had a test last night when my husband came home after a long weekend at a clinic (air scent training for his horse!) and while it may have affected Smeagol’s behavior a bit - he wasn’t attacking my toes all night - and he was a bit cautious, it didn’t send him into hiding.
I haven’t quite figured him out. He has almost certainly never lived in a house. He’s skittish but when he confirms it’s me (and I stop walking toward him) he’s all over me - way friendlier than I’d expect given his presumed background.
He still just has the storeroom and my bedroom. I have let him out a couple times for a walk through the house and the other cats have seen him from a distance but they mostly hissed and ran. It’s way too early for close contact. But he’s so young - maybe a year, but not socially mature (territorial). So given the chance he’ll just go up to any cat to sniff noses. I saw that at my sister’s - he’d go up to the ones who live in the barn when they were outside. The girls would hiss as he sniffed, the boy would chase him a few feet before he got quite that close, but he was not at all chastened.
@shiloh, that’s Buffy on the left (white throat patch). Her brother Hogan is on the right. They may well be cousins to Smeagol. I wouldn’t say that’s Buffy’s normal expression, though maybe she does have a tendency to look a bit concerned.
Buffy loves boxes - here after I had just opened a Christmas present in a small box:
As I remember it she just lay there with her head in the box for a couple of minutes! (Forgive the messy table.)
And one with the rest of her showing:
No more pictures of Smeagol just yet, but the other cats do deserve their turn!
As for Smeagol’s color, I think it is consistent with the colors of the neighborhood cats, if there’s a recessive Siamese colorpoint gene (usually) hidden in there. You see gray tabby and white spotting on Buffy. Smeagol’s blue eyes argue for the Siamese version of the gene, and the rarity of colorpoint in the general population argues for two copies of the same gene (cs/cs) via inbreeding instead of Burmese and Siamese versions (cs/cb) that give a less dramatically lightened body color (“mink”). According to what I’ve read, cb/cb (“sepia”) generally doesn’t have blue eyes. And pure white ( c ) would just be white - it’s recessive so there’s no half-way coloration from a single copy. What seems odd to me is I’d expect the body to be a bit more dramatically light with cs/cs, rather than just muted, but at this point I hit the limit of what I can find online & figure out theoretically. Except maybe growing out his coat while living outdoors in a New Hampshire winter means it can get darker? Since the color expression is temperature-related.
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They are adorable. Wait til they start scampering about with big brother!
Never heard of this and had to google. So interesting. Is your husband an on-line type who would care to start a thread to tell us how they scent train horses and how his horse did?
No pressure. Just really curious. It sounds like a great way to give back to the community, helping in searches.
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