I haven’t written about Mooch lately.  I wanted to complete our vacation and see where he stood when we got back.  I didn’t see him for the first week or two after we got back from vacation, but over the last two weeks, I’ve started to see more of him.  I’m still not sure what his status is, but I’m more inclined to go with “homeless” or “unaltered outside male” instead of “feral.”  I’m not sure why, but that’s the sense I get.

If he’s in the “unaltered outside male” category, he belongs to someone.  He’s an awfully skinny kitty, though, so I have to think that’s less likely. I don’t see him hunting, and he doesn’t seem to care for himself in the same manner the ferals did.  My mail carrier didn’t recognize him, but the timing for an elderly man who lived a block away moving to a nursing home in Temple seems to match up with when I began to see Mooch around the house.  Mooch seems to have gotten skinnier since then, and he does seem to be taking better care of his coat since then.  That lends itself to the story that he’s gone homeless and is learning to cope over the last year.

I have the feeder set to provide about half rations for two adult cats. Sneaky seems to be getting enough, because, while she runs to the feeder when food drops, she doesn’t usually eat it all in one sitting.  She usually eats a little and will come back to graze throughout the day.  Sometimes, I see Mooch up there helping himself, and I don’t chase him away anymore.  Thankfully, Mooch is also drinking water from the tower.

Since we can interact with Sneaky, I can now say she’s our cat, even though she’s an outside cat.  Mooch won’t let us get close to him, and I haven’t tried to trap him.  He and Sneaky do not appear to interact.  They seem to ignore each other. So, while I’m willing to let him “mooch” off us for now, I’m not taking any action with him.  We’re in “wait and see” mode. No. I do not need ten cats.  But I’m not going to chase away a homeless kitty, either.