EL GATO DEL BALCON

As a rule, I do not like to do sequels, especially immediately following.  But I have had many comments from readers about kitty, so I decided to make an exception.  ( Well, that and the fact that nothing of any interest has happened to me in the past month).  When you live in a country like Mexico we call that GOOD NEWS !   It is summer and all the tourists and snow birds have flown home.  No one is left except the Mexican Nationals and us die hard expats.  Every thing moves at a snails pace (actually in Mexico it always moves at a snails pace).  The restaurants, bars and even the streets are almost empty.  It is just too hot to do anything (not that I do much anyway)

Kitty is now a full time resident of my balcony.  She even stays during the hot afternoons, but curls up under one of the palms and fern plants and sleeps.  I am not sure if she stays there all night or not, but she is always at the sliding glass door in the morning.  Her soft little "mew" has turned to a blood curdling scream when she sees me pick up her bowl.  I finally bought a regular plastic pet bowl, but she prefers the hand painted Talevera wear.  Not that she has such great taste, but the pet bowl is too deep and too small for her to put her foot in it.  She will get used to it, I was afraid of breaking my good bowl.

I bought her a cat toy.  It a little ball with feathers: she ignored it.  I guess she never saw a toy before.  I hung it from the balcony railing with plastic fishing line.  As long as I swung it she paid a little attention to it.  She kept grabbing it with her teeth and pulling it.  Finally she broke the line.  It is supposed to have a tensile strength of 70 pounds, but it wasn't strong enough for kitty.   After almost a week, she decided to play with it.  First she tried to eat the feathers on it, but eventually got to rolling it around,  One day it was gone.  I do not know if she hid it or tossed it over the balcony, but it is gone.  She prefers playing with small insects and lizards.  One day she had one of those huge green grasshoppers.  It is about four inches long and can devour a whole palm frond in a matter of hours.  I told her "Good Kitty"  Next she had a little gecko she was toying with.  By the time I saw the poor thing, it was missing its tail and one leg.  Thankfully she finally killed it.  (Cats love to torture small creatures)   Then she dropped a half dead cockroach at me feet.  I stepped on it.  She was not pleased as she was not through with it.


She has become extremely affectionate.  It is almost too much.  She not only rubs against my legs, but rubs her face on my feet.  Sometimes she will jump up on the chair next to me and then cross over the table. She would like to get on my lap but she kneads my thigh with her claws.  Since I am wearing nothing but thin sort of boxer shorts in the morning, I decided this could be quite painful.  So she will nuzzle my arm and look up like she is about to kiss me.  She has also started entering the house more.  When I pick up her food bowl, she will always follow me to the kitchen. (Why do cats insist on moving in front and between your feet when you are walking?)  I am afraid one day of tripping over her.  If my head hit that tile, I could get a concussion.  I have visions of my lying there for days before some one discovers my body with a screaming cat on my chest.

It usually only rains at night, but one morning it was pouring "cats and dogs"  (Now where did that expression come from?)  She was not happy.  She continued to scream at me after she was fed and petted.  Since moving into my world she must think that I am responsible for more than just how much she can eat.  I tried to explain to her that there was nothing I could do about it. But, of course she does not understand English, so she kept on screaming.  She seem pretty content with living on the balcony.  She gets fed, petted, and it is pretty much protected.  Dogs cannot get to her and the only cat that tried to get near I scared away.  If she curls up in a corner, she can even stay dry during a storm.  Sometimes I find her curled up on my chair.  Once while I was busy at the computer she peaked around the door.  Foolishly I put my hand down to pet her.  Not content with that, she jumped up on the desk and walked across my computer.  This will not do!  So I am training her to stay on the balcony.  I do not scold or swat at her, I ignore her.  Not only does she not get fed, or petted inside, but I do not speak to her.  I will walk out to the balcony sit down and pet her.  She seems to be getting the point and rarely ventures inside.

She is now getting quite picky with her food.  She had decided that she does not want the kibble anymore.  I started mashing the canned meat in with the kibble, but she somehow manages to lick off the meat and spit the kibble back in the bowl.  I told her she should look down at all the starving cats down on the street.  They would love to have some of her kibble.  But she does not care (then there is the language barrier as well).  I also bought her some "treats" that are supposed to be like a reward, but she regards them with the same disdain she does for kibble.   Kitty is not my only new resident.  I have a baby iguana living on my roof.  The first 5 or 6 times I saw him, he was silently sitting on the clay tiles at the peak of my laundry room roof.  Then he started moving down my garden wall near the palm trees.  Not knowing what he eats, I put a mango on the roof.  The birds loved it but he never got near it.  Jorge tells me they only eat bugs.  One morning I was busy hosing my deck and did not notice him until he was on the balcony railing next to the door leading to my kitchen.  I really hope he does not enter the house.  I would not want him in my kitchen and kitty would not be pleased either.

 So now, I must think about what our future will be.  (You know that she does not).  What will I do when I go away for a few days to a week.  Will she revert to being a feral cat again?  I do not know anyone who would be willing to feed and pet her twice a day.  The big question is should I find a way to get her to a vet and have her neutered?  I really do not want her to drop a litter of kittens on my balcony. One cat is enough.  I can pick up her up, but doubt she would willing go into a box.  There is a vet here that neuters all animals free.  He is just around the corner, but you must be there by 8:00am for he only takes the first 15 animals.  I am going to ask another regular vet about keeping her over night, checking her out and neutering her in the morning.  She may never speak to me again.