Grey's story, Part I

Lots of things going on today... Peggy Sue's spay went just fine, the Angel's shots went well and we got the good news that both of Sundown & Kitty Chair's kittehs, Treelo and Hubbard, tested negative for FIV/FeLV again after 60 days!! (You may remember that their darling Ziggy tested positive, after having had an, earlier, negative test.) And we've received several stories about FIV+ kittehs to share. And we've got more updates from Jasper's mom!! We'll fill you in a bit more about everything over then next few days, but I thought you'd like to finally see a bit more of Grey and hear some of his story, today!

Here's a short video of Grey and then Sharon relates a bit of how he came to be with them. Unfortunately the neighbor's cat, DC, is quite aggressive and regularly threatens Grey, which is another reason to find sweet Grey a good home.



From Sharon:

Here's how he [Grey] came to live with us. Last winter we had another grey cat living on our porch who got along with DC [the neighbor's cat]. I've since placed him (Mr. Fitzgerald Grey in his new home), and our new Grey showed up after a big snow storm. I thought he was a kitten (an teenager maybe, he looked about a year old and that turned out to be right) he was obviously starving. Someone had dumped him. Maybe because of the economic crisis?

He was not smart about living outside as he made too much noise crying all the time. We started feeding him (he couldn't come inside because we already have two cats which makes my husband keep his inhaler near him at all times) and he quickly filled out and started to calm down. However I still couldn't approach him or he ran away. Gradually I got him to trust me enough to let me pet him but he was very, very skittish and scared.

He quickly filled out to his current 12 pounds and calmed down once he knew food was going to be a regular provision. He still was desperate to come in and my cats really wanted to meet him. They touched noses a couple of times and looked at each other a lot through the back door window. Once Grey even tried to climb the downspout in order to come up to an upper porch where we were sitting. It didn't work but he didn't stop trying and crying. Over the next month or so I got so that he trusted me and let me pet him regularly and even pick him up. Now every time I go outside he demands pets and loveys before he even wants to eat.

The routine is... I put down the food, give a couple of minutes of pets and assurances that he's still loved and then he settles down to eat. DC has learned this schedule and so he always shows up. Now on the weekends Grey gets quality time with a lot of brushing and petting and he sits on my lap for a few minutes purring before jumping down and being on the alert again for DC to show up (which always happens). In one of the videos you can see that he is ever vigilant and watches the end of the porch where DC appears.