Today has been an overcast, rainy day. It hasn’t been raining cats and dogs lately, or at least not dogs! Cats…well, we do have several strays in our neighborhood. About a month ago, I brought one in to stay! Here’s the story of Silas our new cat.
Our cat Silas
Although there are several strays roaming our neighborhood, this beautiful one came more frequently than the others. Of course, he especially did this when I began feeding him! My adopted black cat, Natalya (I adopted her several Christmases ago), watched him eating the Iam’s cat food and drinking the water on the patio outside, from our sunroom.
Initially, I thought the cat was a girl and I asked Ray to help me to name her. He had seen the cat from a distance several times outside, when he was leaving for work. He said, “Sophie,” which is a beautiful name. I even recorded a vlog on my YouTube channel about the cat with the name, “Sophie.” But the cat turned out to be a boy! (Neither of us looked too closely under the tail.)
Ray always thought he was a male from his broad chest and his behaviors, and the vet confirmed that the cat was a non-neutered male. Ray and I decided on his name together, “Silas,” which means “of the forest or wood” or “prayed for.”
Ray has been wanting his own cat, but he wanted a kitten to raise and then for it to become a “lap cat” (like my cat Natalya is with me. She loves sitting on my lap and following me around the house). But Silas is definitely NOT a lap cat; he’s never still! Even the vet said this about him.)
Silas has tabby markings, and the vet he saw for a wellness check said he also probably has a mixture of Persian and/or Siamese breed, due to his coloring and his bushy tail. The receptionist at the vet he saw today said he might possibly have a Maine Coon breed mixture as his tail is bushy and his paws are so big.
Initially, I thought the cat was a girl! I’ve always had female cats and only had one male cat, when I was a child. We simply called him “the tomcat.” He was midnight-black and prowled around our house and others in the south Georgian neighborhood where I lived growing up.
I’ve found out that male and female cats are QUITE different, physically and in behavior and personality! Males are definitely more assertive and/or aggressive – more territorial.
I had begun a habit of feeding the cat when suddenly, one week the cat went MIA. I fretted, worried, and obsessed for an entire week, thinking the cat had died. In our neighborhood, there are fast-driving cars, large barking dogs, and other cats, and Ray and I both have seen a couple of dead cats on the road as we drive to town. Ray thought someone had probably taken the cat into their home, and he, our daughters, and my sister Maria encouraged me that the cat was probably just fine. I began praying for the cat.
I made a decision that if the cat came back, I was going to take him in to live with us as OUR pet. He didn’t have a collar. While he acted partly feral, he did want me to pet him when I’d feed him and seemed to have interacted with human beings before. (He also knew how to use a litter box immediately when I took him in; I didn’t have to train him, thank God!) Other stray cats in the neighborhood ran away when they saw Ray or me or other people, but this cat seemed friendly.
One day when I went to get into my car to drive to see our daughters (in another city), he began walking toward me, meowing as if to say, “Don’t go!” My heart just went out to him! (This was before he went missing.)