Feeding cats, January 2002 and March 2016

Young Buster with Famdamily and Old Buster with ginger cat

January 21, 2002.  One of the first photos taken with the Nikon 775, my first digital camera, days before I left on my last sabbatical leave.  The mother cat, calico Iris, and one of her last large litter, famdamily, of kittens (lower left), is joined by a new arrival, the still lanky and adolescent male that I came to call Buster.  Though as an alley cat, house raised but left behind by student house-renters when they moved and during my last travels before I retired cared for only by the friends who cared for my house, he has become one of the most affectionate and dependent elderly neutered cats imaginable, now nearly 15 years old, which the digital camera's data records.

21 March 2016.  Though it was very overcast, I relied on the Nikon 1 v2 to record Buster, who never learned NOT to share food on the side porch, though he is as territorial as can be about his yard and the sanctuaries around and under it as ever.  One of my wisest friends warned me of the wisdom of letting neighboring cats in for company but NOT (repeat NOT) feeding them, since they aren't mine and I don't want to be adopted!  Buster, ever semi-feral, with Spring weather, insists on eating outside, unless it's raining.  Well, you see what has happened.  The ginger cat (less orange than Buster but without any white extremities, not even on his underside or his chin) evidently is house bred (neutered and clean and well nourished), but Buster still wants to eat outdoors in fresh air and doesn't mind company, though if he stares too hard the ginger cat will back away, then sneak back in a couple of minutes.  They act as if the kibbled food were a carcass and they were taking care to pick it safely.   I do not want a young cat to adopt me, but no one claims him so far.  

2 March 2016.  Solid-color, or even striped cats free of white points and bellies, are rarely seen hereabouts; this is the only one I've seen within walking distance of my house in all the thirty years I've lived here.  I notice that he does have white whiskers and wonder if show cats of this sort must have tan whiskers, too.  He has amber eyes.  Note that he is a 'pure' shorthair; Buster has a short but fluffy undercoat.  He is very timid of me, but that is because I make it plain that Buster owns me.