The Story of Floofy

“Is that your cat?” is what I occasionally get asked, when a neighbor or passer-by saw me take Floofy upon my shoulder, after I found him at one of his old favorite hangout places.

Well, Floofy honestly was not originally my cat. Truth be told, he was my neighbor’s cat, and eventually became the neighborhood cat. With his friendly demeanor and charm, everyone kept an eye on him. So he was well taken care of and suited to life as an outdoorsman.

Nonetheless, it can get a bit crazy out there, especially for an outgoing and brave cat. As such, here is a story of how I came to be his caretaker, and us being a friendly pair.

First Greetings

I saw Floofy ocassionally around the neighborhood, often leisurely strolling. My neighbor was looking for him one time and coincidentally Floofy popped out of nowhere.

One evening Floofy came by and I noticed him at the front door, while i was in the kitchen. I fed him a bit of canned tuna, and he was pretty comfortable around me. As I learned quickly, he was very friendly and use to having people around.

 

Building him a Makeshift Shelter

By October 2020, Floofy was coming around on a regular basis. I’d give him some food and we’d sit on the porch. The weather was starting to cool, and get a bit chilly. I got the crazy notion of making a cardboard shelter for him, so he would have a safe place shielding him from the elements.

It was quite an elaborate setup, but I soon learned Floofy wasn’t the type of cat that would comfortably gravitate towards enclosed spaces. He was a street savvy outdoors hunter, so open spaces suited him.

I wrapped the exterior of my box-shelter with garbage bags, but Floofy never went inside. If anything, he would lay on top of the box. So I eventually scrapped it. Floofy was safe though, and took care of himself. Though on ocassion I noticed he would have some minor scratches and knicks.

One week I didn’t seem him for three days or so. When he finally reappeared on my front porch, I noticed he must have gotten into some trouble.

The First “Big” Injury

It wasn’t pretty, as there was some dried blood and a big gash where I trimmed off some of the hair. I had to keep him indoors after for quite some time so he could heal up. I made my own saline solution to keep the wounds clean.

 

After some time of doing my best to keep the wounds clean, it was looking better for Floofy. I noticed the wound seemed to be some puncture wounds–perhaps from bites or claws of another animal. The excess blood was likely an abscess that built up and popped, which resulted in his appearance when he showed up again at my place.

When he was all better, I hesitated to let him back out in the neighborhood. However, I knew it was in his nature to want to be outside, so I came up with a plan to keep track of him with a Tile tracker on his collar.

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I ended up buying about three Tile trackers, and Floofy ended up losing a few collars out in the wild. But it certainly helped me keep track of where he potentially was around the neighborhood. However, often he went “off the grid” or he was somewhere that I couldn’t reach him at (such as someone’s backyard).

I did discover he loved hanging out at the local BBQ & Brewery.

 

The Second Injury

One night my neighbor let me know he found Floofy with a big gash on his head. Not quite certain what could have caused this, but it meant another phase of rest for Floofy indoors. I followed the same practice as before, with the saline solution to clean the wound daily.

His outdoor time was here on out under supervision! I didn’t have the heart to let him roam as he once did, in case he got into some predicament again.

  And that’s the story of Floofy!

I have much appreciation to my neighbors who have kept watch on him to keep him safe, and a big thank you to my neighbor who is Floofy’s original caretaker, who gave me his blessing to me to take care of Floofy.

I’d like to share more of Floofy on this blog as well as up on my other social media accounts. Hope you enjoy learning more about this amazing fluffy guy!