We thought there was only one black cat, so imagine my surprise when one night I found our new friend in the garage... and then walked inside to find her sleeping on the couch. Alas, there were two! Over time, we noticed that blackcat2 had the same type of marking as Sweetie (if you could call them such, she just has a v-shape of sparse white hairs on her chest) and that both were very friendly to each other (whereas other cats would get hissed at). For lack of a better name, we just called him "the brother", and now he's Brother/Brother Cat. However, he was very skittish and took off at the sight of us.
One day, I was locked out with naught but a ham sandwich. I noticed Brother Cat off in the grass and decided to coax him over with food. I used the old trail of delicious food to lure him closer to me, until finally he was eating mere feet away from me before deciding that was enough for the day. It was the beginning of his journey into a friendship with the housepeople who lived above his deck. :3
I've pet him before, while he was eating. Didn't seem to like it, but obliged for the sake of something to eat. But then, a couple days ago, when I sat outside to enjoy the weather while filling out my voter's ballot... All of a sudden Brother walks up to me and decides, "Hey, I'd maybe like to receive some pets from you? Meow~ ?"
He doesn't seem to groom, but I can't reject him as he's coming around. So I pet him a little bit and filled up his food bowl (then washed my hands really, really well). And today I went out there-- he ran up to me, meowed, and begged for me to pet him! So I sat there for awhile and pet him until he purred. He wouldn't jump on my lap, but he kept begging for more and more pets.
This is really good news, because it means he's able to be tamed. We want to get him fixed and vaccinated, and we're pretty close to trapping him and taking him in. But if we can get him to like and trust us first, I feel like it will help reduce the stress of such an experience immensely and we can just load him up into a carrier (not the one we use for our cats though) and take him to the vet.
But I'm really excited about this. I was able to get some pictures, even! Sorry for the size.
He's still thin even though he's being fed regularly now. I suspect he has worms, so he's going to be treated for those too. I haven't seen the typical rice-like things on his butt, but I find it suspicious that he's still so thin.
So that's the story of Brother cat, and how we're befriending him so we can take him to the vet and get him the works. rofl It's just a shame that when the boyfriend and I move, we'll have to leave him behind. He'll still have someone to love him and take care of him (we're all cat people here!), but I'm becoming fond of him.
