And then there were three!
Manipi is doing well. If you've followed my blog for a while, you know his story. (If not, catch up on past installments here and here.) He's put on a lot of weight and seems very comfortable around my house. I've never tried to force him to stay since he came back, and he's generally never gone more than a few feet away. Since he's recovered his health, every now and then he'll go for a little stroll part way down the lane and back, but that seems to be the extent of his desire to wander now. And he is still slowly loosing those frostbitten tips on his ears as you can see. But overall, he looks amazing considering how close to death he was when he first came back!
Wynn has also been doing well in the large space she's had to roam in my friend's shop. She's grown up a lot and become good friends with another rescued formerly feral cat named Luther (my friend's choice of names, he thinks the cat looks like a Lex Luther) who's been living there too. He's a huge long haired black tom who I was slightly afraid might try to kill her. Instead, when she first showed up, she hissed at him and he ran away from her for several weeks before she finally decided to be nice to him. Now they are together all the time.
I've always hoped to be able to bring her back to my house at some point, and a few days ago, that's just what I did. With her new buddy Luther in tow. Right now it would be hard for any of the cats to run away since the snow is hip deep on me. So I thought this would be a good time to try to get them all settled in together. First I put out three sets of food and water so hopefully none of them would get into a fight over any of those things. Luther and Manipi looked at each other for a few seconds and then both went to eating right beside each other with no complaints.
Wynn, on the other hand, decided to be a drama queen. She peered out of the crate at both of them just like this for hours without deciding to take a step out.
The boys made themselves comfy on the porch and just let her watch. Luther took a stroll around the house, the driveway, over to my little shed, and seemed to approve.
It's about time Luther has some stuff to run after and chase to get a work out. Living in that shop he was just getting fat. He's probably the biggest normal domestic cat I've ever seen and all that hair just makes him look bigger! He went from the porch, to under the house, to perched on top of the ladder that's still sitting behind my house from installing the pipes for my wood stove. Then he decided he needed a higher perch and settled into a tree branch about level with my window tops. He's always liked high perches I think because in the shop he would hang out on top of a tractor cab most of the time.
Wynn finally got brave enough to get out of the crate around dusk. She really is the prettiest one of the three I think.
She took a little walk around the shoveled paths and then hid under the house too.
Manipi is under there too in this photo, but too far back in the dark to see. Later Wynn crawled into my little shed and decided to hide out there. This morning, she was curled up back in the crate. Manipi was under the house which is where he normally sleeps, and Luther had made his own bed under a fallen log at the base of the tree he'd been perched in earlier. They all seem to be getting along ok which makes me really happy! So now I have three pets.
Yes, I know, it looks like I'm on my way to being a crazy old cat lady. Really, I'd like to think of it as just expanding my homestead. The next critters will probably be chickens and maybe a few turkeys in the spring...
