The Dude

The Dude is a girl.  Just so you know.

She likes the low-calorie Iams that I feed Fleck and Lily, but I think I'm going to get her something with more calories, since she's so skinny.

She likes to sleep in front of the apartment, in a little messy area under my kitchen window.  I'm trying to train her to come to the back door, but until today she would only come back there when I tempted her with food.  She'd eat, then go back to the front.  The upstairs neighbor's air conditioner drips down onto that place under the window, so there's a little puddle for The Dude to drink from.  Today, I gave her a dish of cold water at the back door and now she's been camped out on the patio all afternoon.

I'm scared she'll get pregnant, but I 'm hesitant to take her to be fixed.  The spay/neuter organizations "tag" the cats that are fixed by clipping about an inch off of one ear.  I don't want them to tag her ear.  She's tame, for pete's sake...she is going to end up being my outside cat, if she's not sick.  She doesn't need an ear trim...but if I don't let them tag the ear, they will know she's MY cat, not a feral cat, and they will charge me more than $10 to get her fixed and cleaned up.

Lily does not approve of Patio Cat.