Monica Ackerman

There once was an outside cat...yeah, right. My son assured me and I bought it all the way until the second winter, that this cat was strictly an outside cat. Did not want to be inside, hated to be inside, panicked if it was forced to be inside, blah blah blah. And in the beginning it seemed to be true. Whenever I opened the door to let her sniff the inside cats, she would take a step or two into the room, the inside cats would come to greet her, and she would beat a hasty retreat.

The faithful readers of this ezine might remember her, LittleGirl, the tuxedo cat who was unceremoniously dumped by a faithless owner whose new ladylove did not like cats. Imagine! A man who would give up a cat he raised from a kitten in favor of a woman! What kind of a man is that I ask you?

Anyway, taking an 8-year-old cat to a shelter was out of the question so after he assured me this was strictly an outdoor cat, I told my son he could add her to my menagerie of three indoor cats and the four or five girl ferals plus two or three visiting strays I was feeding at that time. LittleGirl quickly took over the backyard and cleared it of the riffraff, including the visiting strays as well as the ferals, declaring herself the queen of the realm as she settled into my carport to rule. She even put the resident two year old indoor/outdoor male from across the court in his place even though he had seniority.

She survived the first winter, although I tried very hard to make her as comfortable as I could and at one point even considered taking her to my son's enclosed garage during a very nasty cold spell but considered the move too traumatic for her. My car port is enclosed on three sides and I made a cozy shelter for her and worried myself sick until I discovered she cuddled up with the indoor/outdoor cat across the way on those cold nights, burying the hatchet when it suited her.

My three indoor cats were very curious about the little tuxedo outdoor cat and always greeted her through the screen door, lining up whenever I opened the back door into the car port. One particularly nasty windy and rainy day I again encouraged LittleGirl to come inside. Lo and behold, to everyone's surprise, she put one tiny foot over the threshold, then another, and suddenly she was inside, looked around and made straight for the feeding station.

The others stared at her in amazement. And walked away. LittleGirl ate some of their kibbles, drank from their dish and looked around the house. Then she came looking for me, the only familiar being. When first one and then the other of the indoor cats came to sniff her, they were greeted with a swat. No claws, just a swat. “No, no,” I told her, “be nice.” She looked at me and climbed into my lap. My heart melted. None of my cats are lap cats. Chelsea will sit next to me, Charlie will sit next to my head when I'm in bed reading, Maxx follows me around and will sit at the door to watch over me, but no one will sit in my lap but here is this little outdoor cat, wanting to sit in my lap. I was content. My life was complete. I did not have to worry about this little cat having to spend another winter out in the cold.

And then, disaster. This little cat has diarrhea. And had never used a litter box. Her litter box is the great outdoors. So while I was sleeping she pooped on the bed, on the floor, on my shoes, wherever she happened to be. She seems unable to control the urge. In the morning she wanted to go outside. It had stopped raining so it made sense to let her out and she stayed out but when I came home she wanted back in. I decided she could be inside when I was home so I could watch her. I then remembered occasionally when she came into the car for petting that she would pass gas and poop a little here and there and it was diarrhea then. This little cat had chronic diarrhea! She needed to see a vet.

I took her to the clinic to see what the problem could be. Unfortunately, $200 later we still have no answer. The $85 blood tests revealed she has the virus which can cause toxoplasmosis in humans and some other virus for which she now takes a $40/month antibiotic. For the diarrhea I feed her a $60/month special diet which so far has not done her much good. And since all my cats eat from the same dish, I now have four really healthy cats who get antibiotics in their food and eat a very special diet! And I have learned that if I let LittleGirl out at 5:00AM she will go potty outside. Whew!

I was originally very much opposed to add a strictly outdoor cat to my household of strictly indoor cats for the simple reason that I could not imagine how I could keep the indoor cats indoors while allowing the outdoor cat to go in and out at will. Well, it works. I find that I can stand at the open screen door and call LittleGirl to come out while the other three look at me expectantly to see if I mean them. I tell them “No, not you” and they understand. Then the little one comes running and goes out. Where there's a will there's a way. And my daughter is right again. I am turning into a crazy cat woman just as she predicted. Because now there are four cats in my little house... well technically three-and-a-half.

Monica Ackerman lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her cats. She's written several stories chronicling her journey from cat hater to champion of ferals and shelter animals. She is collecting cat stories for an anthology. Any net proceeds from sales of the book will go to local cat rescue/welfare organizations. Please submit your story to The Book