Spat’s Story by Ilonka USA

Spats was a community cat who was part of a managed colony down the street. Betty and her son Keith fed Spats and his friends and all of them were TNRed. 

A few weeks after first hearing about him--Betty shared that Spats would yowl in front of her window at 6 a.m. reminding her to feed him--we saw him in our backyard enjoying our catnip bush. We put out food and he would come and hang out for extended periods of time. My Mom came to visit and Spats knew that she was the weakest link--he totally worked on her--sat in her lap, nuzzled, you name it--he wanted to come inside and by the end of her visit, my Mom gave us money to have him checked out at the vet so we could bring him indoors. 

He tested positive for FIV and we were initially devastated, but our vets reassured us that we could bring him in and integrate him into our household with three other cats. We gave it a shot and are so glad we did. 

Spats was a total wild man at the beginning--he had never lived in a house before. He marked territory with abandon, stole anything edible he could get his paws on, and yowled his head off to go outside. 

He gentled down after a while and became a snuggly, sweet housecat. He's nine now and has early kidney disease, but he is an amazing cat and we love him to the moon and back!