Officially talked the wife into adopting the outside kitten (yay!). He showed up on the day we moved here and I have spent the last month winning him away from his feral ways. This morning he curled up in my lap for the first time and was purring up a storm.
Anybody ever adopt a young out-door cat? My concern is that he will always want to be going outside - which is utterly out of the question. My other concern is that he really liked to kill and eat things (chipmunks, birds, etc) and we do not keep any of those things inside our home. He is eating a ton of the cat food we use though. And he really likes our baby. He was much less guarded about the baby than he was my wife and I. Yesterday they were playing in the leaf pile together.
My biggest concern is that it will upset the delicate balance in the home vis-a-vis our other cats - but there is nothing I can really do to predict that. They have gotten to know the kitten through a glass patio door but have had no contact with him. Of course I will be taking the little dude to the vet for tests and pests and then quarantining him for ten days. I really hate that part.
Oy, three cats. The odd numbered cat always seemed to be the relevant one when it comes to cat care. For example, one cat is different than zero but two cats are not terribly different than one cat. Three cats however, is a lot more work than two.
But he is cute and healthy and sweet and one of our cats is getting up there in years.