Topix Underground

I never had a cat before this feral cat Gus. It was maybe 6 years ago in September. He was a kitten, injured and winter was coming. He was watching me from inside the treeline for a few days so I started setting out bowls of cat food for him so he could see it was me doing it. I did manage to get him to start sleeping in our garage before that first winter. I'd let him out in the morning and he'd return at night to eat and sleep. At one point, he went missing for a week - I feared the worst. But when he showed up again, he had been 'fixed' and one of his ears was nipped. Apparently he was a victim of that alien abduction and anal-probing we hear so much about.

 It took two years to get Gus to trust me enough to come inside the house and be a regular citizen of the realm. Now he sticks to me like glue. In the meantime, two years ago, a stray female cat came running into the garege, went under one of my work tables and had kittens. A couple months later she split and left her kids with us. So now we have a total of 4 cats, a dog, 4 fish and  10 chickens, plus mighratory birds that come back every year and nest in the chimney and another in the soffit - I don't care. It's been my station in life to care for any animal that comes to my door for as long as I can remember. I always say this is the last time but as soon as there is vacancy, another shows up. Animals must be able to sense that or something because this kind of thing has been going on with me since I was a child.
It's a GD honor.