Congratulations!
The kitty’s markings are marvelous. So pretty.
Pretty boy!
They both work. The first one (with the /a/ in the link) is a link to the album, while the other is a link to the individual picture. Since you only uploaded one image without clicking the button to add another image, the album and the single image are basically the same thing.
He’s pretty, like sunshine. I’m afraid he may be an abandoned cat. I hate it when people do that crap but just sometimes it comes out better for everyone.
What a spectacular stripy tail he has.
He might have been abandoned – but he’s a young full tom, and it’s February. He may have gone tomcatting and gone too far, and gotten lost; or may have gotten into a car or truck someplace, and gotten out again quite far from home.
I’ve put up several posters in the nearest village; and put classifieds in three different local papers. Combined with earlier described efforts, and with the anticipated chip check, I do believe I’ve done my due diligence (though one of the papers is a weekly and not out yet, and the widest readership of another is for their weekly freebie advertising version, which won’t be out till Saturday.)
He’s got a vet. appointment for Thursday; they’ll check for a chip, and, if they don’t find one, will inoculate him. The feline leukemia vaccine needs a booster three weeks later; if his previous humans haven’t surfaced by then, I’ll have him neutered.
While I haven’t let him loose around the others yet, he’s exchanged some friendly sniffs, while I held him, from a short distance with the previously-threatening neutered tom; who seems to have decided that while Strange Cat Outside was a Threat to be Driven Off, Cat Indoors And Starting To Smell Familiar is instead a likely friend. The Cat-Who-Maybe-Lives-Here-And-Maybe-Is-Just-Boarding is more dubious, and hissed at Who-Are-You’s scent on my hands after I’d been patting him. The Old Cat is ignoring the whole thing, though I’m sure she knows he’s there.
He might be Merton, by the way. He did say Mrrrt.
I’d keep him away from the others until he’s been tested for FIV. It sounds like he is pretty used to humans though if he’s already making noises at you.
Merrrrrton is an excellent name. 
A very handsome cat.
They’ll test him when they inoculate, I think.
He’s definitely very used to humans. A cat who’s not used to humans doesn’t let a human pick him up. Mert let me pick him up almost immediately, and let me carry him into the house; and has since then been more interested in pats than in anything else, even food, water, and getting back out of the room he’s been shut into. Not that he hasn’t made it quite clear that he wants those other things too. (The food and water he has, of course.)
No chip. Feleuk and FIV negative. Ear mites, which I had suspected. Abscess developing in one hind paw from a wound I’d missed – he hasn’t been limping.
Full round of inoculations. Injected antibiotic for the abscess. Ears cleaned out. Topical med useful against both ear mites and worms, for all four cats – mine hadn’t been wormed in a while, and this will keep them from catching the earmites before the med’s had time to work on maybe-Merton. Appointment made for booster shots and neutering in three weeks. Vet-approved to mix with the others, though he shouldn’t go outside until after the three-week appointment.
If his original humans show up now, I hope they want to pay the vet. bill; though I don’t know that I’d blame them for refusing to pay for the inoculations if he’s already had them.
Vet. thinks he’s about a year and a half old or so – probably a spring 2018 kitten. He has tartar on his teeth and barbs on his penis, apparently both unlikely if he were under a year (I didn’t look at his penis, didn’t realize vet was doing so when she did it); but he doesn’t have that wide jowly face that full toms get, and she said that usually doesn’t develop until they’re 2.
She also said he might easily have covered as much as 15 miles over a couple of days out tomcatting; though my ads in assorted papers should cover that area and then some, at least unless we’re measuring across the lake, but I’m sure he didn’t swim across a couple of miles of lake in February. Possibly he’s already left kittens in the gene pool; though it’s quite likely that he got driven off by a succession of barn cat toms – he has the size and condition to potentially win a fight, but doesn’t seem to have a high feline belligerence level.
When I brought him back home, Resident Neutered Tom was in the kitchen. I tried putting maybe-Merton down on the floor a couple of feet away. Maybe-Merton turned away and went to explore a different part of the kitchen. Resident Male proceeded to sniff the cat carrier Maybe-Mert had just gotten out of. After a couple of minutes I put Mrrt back in his room for now; but it looks to me like neither of them wants a fight.
This is all around good news. I’m glad Mrrt has found a good, safe place to be. I have a yellow neutered rescue tom. I had heard that yellow male cats are the mellowest of all cats, and mine certainly is. Sounds like Mrrt is turning out to be this way as well.
Eminem is settling right in, it seems.
I’m happy we’ve started the process of making acquaintances with his new brother.
Yep, sounds like you have a new cat. Hope his paw heals quickly.
He’s still not limping. I think the paw will be OK.
Right now he’s wandering around the house, exploring. There’s been a certain amount of hissing, but no explosions; though he got shut in earlier for a while for chasing the Maybe-Visiting cat around (she is female, but spayed. He didn’t try to chase the Old Cat, who is also female and spayed – maybe she smells too Old to chase?)
None of the others wants anything to do with him right now, but that may wear off. I’ll keep him shut up part of the time for the time being, and give him the run of the house just for part of the day, choosing times when I’m awake and reasonably alert.
– kayT, i’ve had a very mellow yellow tom, years ago. I’ve also had one who routinely clawed people up, sometimes including me; and briefly one who wandered in who I promptly had to rehome because he was repeatedly attacking the previously-resident male cats and harassing a half-grown female. I’m not really convinced that the color of a cat has anything to do with the cat’s temperament.
The Tom spraying may or may not stop with the neutering. I’ve seen cats learn that mode of communication and become quite satisfied with it even after they lose the need for territorial pissing. But fugginay, good on you for taking him on and getting his work done. Awesomeness.
He’s not spraying all that much; mostly he’s using the cat pans. But he absolutely reeks of TOMCAT HERE. I’ve been around other full toms who didn’t smell any more strongly than neutered cats; but this one is halfway to billy goat. Neutering ought to deal with that.
He’s been loose in the house most of yesterday, and is again today; I’ll probably just be shutting him up in his own room at night and when I’m not home, for a while. There’s been some hissing and growling, as near as I can tell all of it on the part of the others; but no actual fights. Merton has just been wandering around looking entirely relaxed and utterly confident. And I’ve got to say that a cat who can out-confident my other male is one really confident cat. But Merton’s not, thank goodness, acting in the least belligerent.
The last of the papers I’ve listed him in comes out this weekend. But I think I’ve got another cat.
Congratulations.
Today there was a phone call, from someone who had seen one of the posters, and who was missing a yellow cat . . .
a female yellow cat.
Whew.
(Well, whew from me, who at least so far doesn’t have to give up Mert. Not whew for her, unfortunately, as she was still missing her cat.)
Merton is a great name! Hurraays for the new kitty!
Update:
All of that advertising and postering resulted in two phone calls; one of them, as posted above, from somebody looking quite hard for a female orange cat; the other from somebody not looking very hard at all (it was a relative who called, and she didn’t sound very concerned either) for a polydactyl orange tom. Merton is not polydactyl; and the people sounded willing to have me keep him even if he had been their cat.
So he has been back to the vet., had his second round of shots, and been neutered. And has quit trying to hump my arm, which is a relief. He is also chasing the Maybe-Visiting-But-Probably-Mine cat less; though she’s still highly suspicious of him. I expect they’ll work it out in time, though. Old Cat is entirely relaxed around him. I-Was-Here-First tom is trying to get games started.
And yes, I have another cat. Or he has me, which is more likely how he’d put it.
Mrrrrt!