When we lived in another state someone moved and dumped him. I'm guessing that maybe they weren't so nice to him before they dumped/left him, because he was not friendly. He was very skittish and wouldn't come to you at all. Every morning before I went to work I'd leave food for him and he'd watch me from far away.
Well, Mr. Patches eventually got into a fight with some other cat and lost. Badly. He got his eye all cut up and it was bleeding. I was worried, but still I couldn't catch him. It got swollen. Still couldn't catch him. Finally the infection got very bad and one morning I came out to go to work and there he was, right where I left food for him. I knew he was very sick because he didn't even try to get away when I picked him up.
The vet wasn't sure if we could save his eye but we were going to try. To shorten the rest, after a lot of meds. we were able to save his eye, I had him castrated and he got all of his shots and some general blood testing and all of that regular stuff.
In other words, he cost us a small fortune! I informed him that after all of that, he was mine.
All three kiddos love him to bits.
Patches is getting old. We've had him almost 12 years and he was full grown when we got him. Different vets have given us different estimates, but by most of them, he's probably 15 years old or more now. He's slowing down, he now hates to ride in vehicles (LOVED it when he was younger) and his hearing, while still good, isn't like it used to be.
His time is coming, we know cats don't live forever. I've started taking pictures of him. I want to get at least one good picture of him with each of the kids. That way when his time comes, they each have a special picture of just them and the cat.
