Willow’s World

I write a lot of articles about various pets, as well as animals in general, so I thought it would be nice to add a little column about the animals in my life. I currently have several cats, along with the wildlife in my area I enjoy observing when I have the time. I’ve worked at a pet store, and I’ve worked at a veterinary clinic as a vet tech in the past.

 Currently, I have six cats. Four of them are strictly indoor cats that are all rescued from a shelter. The other two are outside cats that adopted us. They just showed up, one at a time. Considering they’re at our door every morning and evening waiting to be fed, we’ve claimed them as ours.

Both of our outdoor cats are males. Jack is a big tom, gray tiger-striped cat.When he first came around, he wouldn’t let us touch him, but over time he’s become a very friendly cat. He loves to be petted. Sometimes when I open the door to get his bowl to fill, he will come inside to get a taste of the food from the inside bowl. In the winter he will come in sometimes and just sit for a while to warm up. He never stays too long though as he is an outdoor cat and he will want out after warming his paws.

The other outdoor cat is a black & white cat named Junior. He started coming around about a year after Jack showed up. We determined that he was a house cat at one time. He was hesitant to come in, but after he did, he laid on our couch and sometimes he would come in simply to use the litter box. Junior is camera shy and it was difficult to get a picture of him. The best I could get was one of him photobombing the picture of the buck in the background.

It took a little bit for the two to get used to each other. Jack is still the dominate one, but they do get along. I like having them around, as they are both good at catching ground squirrels, which can be a nuisance around here. When they do come in, they get along with the indoor cats.

My 4 indoor cats were all adopted from the same shelter. They each have their own story, so my next posts will be about them.