Brindle cat

This blog post is dedicated to my sweet Brindle.

Brindle was a feral cat.  Notice her tipped ear.  Someone around here, I'm assuming a neighboring farm, keeps getting feral cats with tipped ears.  They end up at my house, starving, with diseases, covered in ticks and fleas.  People, stop getting feral cats and letting them loose without taking care of them!  Cats need to be fed and taken care of!

Brindle was terribly wild, starving but still so sweet when she made her way to our house.  Once she found that we will take care of her she never left.  She lives on our porches, under the bushes, and in woodchuck holes when she gets very cold or wet.  She's always around somewhere, chasing mice, watching the guineas, down by the barn, somewhere.  We just have to call her and she comes running.  In the summer time she puts dead mice on our front porch as gifts.  

Brindle looks like someone took black and orange and put in a blender, but didn't mix it all the way.  Brinnie lets me pet her, but it took months to get her to this point.  During the coldest nights of the winter we grabbed both Brinnie and the other feral cat Benjamin and put them both in our bathroom so they'd be warm.  Brindle was terrified, she did not like being locked up.  She cried nonstop.  She was nervous and continually bathed Benjamin to calm her nerves.   Benji hates to be bathed and licked by Brinnie.

Brinnie was very happy to be let loose the next day.  For days afterwards she wouldn't come within 10 feet of us.  Now, months later, she's still more cautious around us, she lets us pet her, but if we try to pick her up she runs.  (Benjamin, on the other hand, tries to go back into the house whenever we open the door.).  We don't let the 2 outside cats in at all unless we lock them up, so they are separate from the inside cats.  We have experienced too many cat diseases around here.

Brinnie is always happy to see me.  When I come home from work she runs out and jumps up on my car in an attempt to get close to me.  She stares at me through the windshield before I get out of the car.  If I have to walk back to the trunk of the car she runs along on top of the car beside me.  I always have to double check when I close the trunk to ensure she's not going to be locked inside.  Yes, I always have Brindle cat footprints on my car.  But I live on a farm - I often have chicken poop on the bottom of my boots, too.  That's life.

I don't like the name I chose for her - "Brindle".  It started as "that brindle cat" then was shorted to Brindle.  I have called her Brenda, she's cool with that.  I also tried calling her Brittany, she's ok with that name, too.  But I always end up calling her Brindle, Brin or Brinnie.  That's just her name.  She doesn't care what I call her, as long as I give her pets and love and food.  Poor little wild cat Brindle.