New milestone with Merlin

As suspected, Merlin comes to visit, half for the food and half for the attention.  He must be eating elsewhere, because he is officially losing his neck.

Lately, he is coming into my apartment, on his own.  He will rub against me, and place himself halfway into the apartment.

Unfortunately, it has to be his idea to come in, go figure.

Re: Reimbursement for feeding Merlin....

Since Merlin has obviously chosen my home as his secondary food source, does that give me the right to get reimbursed from his existing owner, for the food I am spending on him?

Alternatively, if I use pictures of Merlin or if Merlin makes me money, either from photos or a cat show, am I obligated to share part of the revenue with his owner?

Merlin's weird hours.....

Merlin has been coming latey by at 3 am to be fed.  My theory is that he does his business outdoors and decides to visit me for a snack.

You think the owner would wonder why he spends up to 6 hours outside......  Otherwise, he is well taken care of. He has visited me after having his nails clipped, and his fur groomed.

He does hate it when I bring him indoors.  I will post some pics of him indoors.

My personal indoor brats.....

In case you are wondering, Bugs (left) and Buttercup (Right) actually like Merlin and allow him in their apartment.

The beginning of my blog

Hi:  This is my first post here. I will be sharing the day to day adventures of Merlin, my outdoor cat, who appears to have a home somewhere, but prefers to live on my backporch.

Some pics of the life of Merlin

Sometimes I question the friends Merlin has....

Some of Merlin's Friend's or Foes.....

Merlin has to share his porch with other animals, unfortunately.  He has had the company of possums, raccoons, squirrels, and other cats and dogs....

Very rarely does he ever challenge or fight his visitors.....  He just lets them eat his food

Question the members may have for me.....

Well, this is my first blog I have ever made or maintained. About me, well, I work in the medical field checking pacemakers and defibrillators in a busy cardiology practice, in Dallas, TX.  On the weekends, I volunteer at Dog and Kitty City, the Dallas County Humane Society.

I have two cats of my own, Bugs, a 10 year old grey tabby and a 8.5 year old tonkinese mix, named Buttercup.  These will be the only children I will have, since I had a vasectomy in 1997.

I currently reside in The Village, a large apartment complex, off of Southwestern Blvd.  It is safe to say that there are more stray cats here, than any cat house in Nevada.....

I guess that people will want to know why the hell am I feeding him, when I don't know who the owner is, even though I have a close idea where he lives.  Well, it started when I began to feed my neighbor's cats, around two years ago, after he went to hospice.  His cat was solid black, and was quite feral but I kept my promise to him and feed this cat till he stopped showing up.

After a while, this beautiful, majestic, grey cat, showed up on my porch, and would not let me pet him or touch him, but let me watch him while he ate.  I picked the name Merlin, since a friend of mine, had a Russian Blue, named Gwendolyn.  So, he became my Merlin and a pain in my ass.

After a while, Merlin let me pet him and now, he lets me pick him up and play with him.   While he was an unexpected addition to my family, I do enjoy feeding him.  For the most part, I can predict when he will come by.  He usually comes by 5 to 6 am, and 5-6 pm.  Unfortunately, sleeping in is more of a privilege than a right, since Merlin gets on his hind legs and scratches the window, till I open the door and feed him.

I have put multiple collars with notes, with my contact information.. The funniest thing I ever did was to put a pink collar on him.  Needless to say, it lasted only a day. 

I plan on painting his nails pink, if he will let me.  That would piss off his owner, if nothing else would.