You remember Cat, the feral tortoise shell cat that showed up at our house in Texas in 2016.
She was there for at least four years and I spent a lot of time trying to make friends with that cat. She was so standoffish but after a while, she would come up and rub on my legs. A couple of times if I sat outside and was very quiet and very still, she plopped down on my lap, then remembered she was supposed to not like people and she took off.
She would sit on top of my car and I had to walk right by my car to get into the sewing room. Sometimes I could hear her purring and sometimes she would reach down and slap at me as I walked by her.
There was no way we could bring her to Missouri with us and leaving her was really hard for me. I was glad that when I left, Vince was still there for a while. I would have cried like a baby if I had driven off and left her all alone. The people who bought our house were happy to have her and they were animal loves so I’m assuming she is being well cared for.
We have a few mice outside. OK . . we see a few mice and I’m pretty sure that means there are a lot of mice outside. A few days ago, I told Vince that I wish we had an outside cat. He said “I wish we had a tortoise shell cat!”
Beggars can’t be choosers, right? Wrong! This morning I was outside with Cooper just as the sun was coming up. Not only was I out in my pajamas but I didn’t have my glasses on! Vince has a short metal table outside his shop that’s for a saw or something. As we we walking around, not really close to that table, I saw a cat sitting on it. I thought it was a tortoise shell cat but, without my glasses .. it could have been a skunk! Oscar is usually very quick to notice things but he did not notice that cat. I kept him far from her because (1) I don’t trust cats I don’t know and (2) without my glasses, I wasn’t 100% sure it was a cat.
I took him back inside and got my glasses. Oscar was chomping at the bit to go out but I knew he would see the cat and I wanted to get a better look.
Yes, it’s a cat and it’s a tortoise shell. But, I don’t think she needs a home. That’s ok. She can still come get the mice. I took this picture of a tortoise shell cat here in June, 2023.
I think the cat I saw this morning has the same markings in the same spots as does the cat I saw a year ago.
I put some food and water out for her. She ate a bit of food. I don’t know if she drank water. She obviously wasn’t starving. Hopefully she was feeding on the mice but I do believe she has a home nearby. She can show up here any time she wants and if she doesn’t have a home, she’s welcome to be our outside cat!
What’s funny is that I thought tortoise shell cats were kinda rare but we had Cat, a tortoise shell cat showed up at Chad’s house but they were able to find the owner and we have this one hanging around. How unusual is it to see tortoise shell cats? Do you see them often?
Ruth says
My Dad has two tortoiseshell cats out of the tribe of feral outside cats he feeds (and spays if he can catch them). That’s maybe 20% of them.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I’m wondering if there is a “tribe” of them, if they’re less likely to interact with humans. There were other feral cats in our woods in Texas but not many and we rare saw them so I think Cat might have felt alone in the woods or maybe she was lazy and enjoyed food and water being provided for her.
Rebecca L says
-I think they are pretty rare to see without white on them, and they are almost always female (local shelter had a male tortie). I follow an account that shows dozens of cats a day, and the tortoiseshells are not always represented.
However, I just did a quick search, and the only place “rare” came up was in regard to males. Next question: do they have an “attitude”? Cat certainly did!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Chad said the one that came to their house was nice. In fact, they kept her in the house for several days before they were able to locate the owner. So, if she had an attitude, she must have been so happy to be inside that she was on her best behavior. They have a Husky and had one Corgi at the time and neither of them were used to cats so she probably had to stay on her toes. The cat here didn’t get close to me but that’s understandable since I was a stranger. Cat definitely had an attitude. Vince was laughing today about the time I managed to get her in a crate and we took her to the vet. They sedated her and gave her the needed vaccines and checked her for feline leukemia. When we got her home, she ran into the woods for days but would come back when she was sure we weren’t looking and eat her food. We could sit out for a while and see her walking along the edge of the woods but she always acted like she didn’t see us and I think she assumed if she didn’t acknowledge our presence, we didn’t see her either. It was about a week before she decided to grace us with her presence again. She was very entertaining (but it doesn’t take much to entertain us).
Rosalie in Texas says
I brought in 4 feral kittens 17 years ago and one was tortoise shell- her sister is still living. In July a little starving kitten showed up at the neighbors. They trapped her snd she came here to live. Her name is Zenna and she is tortoise shell.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Do you find all tortoise shells to be “strong willed and hot tempered”, which is a description of them I found on the internet? Cat was difficult but I think it was because she was a feral cat. She wanted to be nice but she wasn’t very trusting of humans.
Rebecca L says
.I think it was because she was feral. Again, in the research, I read that since tortoiseshell isn’t a breed, just coloring that can occur in many different breeds, that attaching an attitude to them is kind of “you see what you want to see.” (Some people think orange cats have a certain personality type.)
I had a little longhair tortoiseshell that was just wonderful. She had been living in the parking lot; we would lead her to our door to feed her. One night, I was out there with her, and she climbed in my lap and sat there for so long, my husband came looking for me. Then she sat in his lap, and that was the night she moved in.