These cats come to us wild, having survived outside for a long time on their own. Being outside is natural for them. Our cat gets neurotic quickly inside, going into all the corners and meowing.
Also, none of these cats has ever taken to a litter box. I tried to train Iris to one, but no go, she wants to go outside and who are we to argue with a cat.
I called out local vet this morning "all booked up", so I took the injured stray Tom to the city, hour drive, only to find out that the Humane Society didn't open til 1pm, so I ran some errands, kept the cat cool, came back at 1pm, and they said to take it to this old Harley dealership that's now a pet rescue place, took him into receiving, they said let's see your ID, and then said we can't help you, you need to go back to your County where we have no services at all, we're a "shoot and shovel" county.
So back to the Humane Society, the gals there were really sweet, and they conferred with the manager for 1/2hr to get him a consultation in the clinic, where they pronounced him much too injured to do anything but put him down. I already knew in the back of my mind that this was the only possible outcome, so I let them, made a donation and left.
It was sad, I'd been petting him in the waiting room, and he was comfortable.
Strangely, in the glass enclosed room named "Catlantis", they had the gorgeous Self Black male, obviously super friendly and scratching at the glass looking at me, making cutesy faces and rubbing on furniture. This is exactly what the injured cat would have looked like before his ordeal, also absolutely the spitting image of our good kitty.
I asked, what's the deal with that cat, and they said "He's feisty, and he's on hold for someone".
Feisty, that's what our cat is. Named her Clawdya for a reason. I've got the battlescars to prove it.
Oddly enough, David Gilmour has the same identical cat he calls the "Black Cat", as see in a pic inside the book in a portrait with the Black Strat.
The hair on her belly is about half grown back from her spay surgery.