de schele Rosse -a cat's tail

I really ought to be studying... but I just had to tell you about this!

I found myself immersed in a new "project" all of a sudden. He's called "de schele Rosse" -a not so nice name for redheads, only in his case it's a fitting description: he's got a squint and he's well, ginger...

I first met him a couple of weeks ago. Living near the city's end with a park & community gardens nearby we sometimes get visits from dumped cats. He caught my attention because he's quite vocal, telling his life's history as he walks by...
He had his squint already back then, it looked like a bad scratch from a fight but otherwise he seemed ok with it. And as he was weary of humans I couldn't approach him anyway. He's also very much unneutered, can't go 5 steps before marking his territory...Poor thing. :-p

He came in at dusk & dawn to eat at my cat cracker self service. LOL.

A week or more ago I noticed he had dirt or something hanging from the right side of his throat (you can see it on the photo as well), but a couple of days later I saw it from behind and it proved to be quite a nasty cut! Another fight? A dog or other predator maybe (besides loose dogs there aren't any here, unless you count pretty fierce rabbits...)? Luckily he didn't seem to be bothered by it that much. Still it looked pretty serious, gaping wound and all (sorry for the visual!).

I realized he had to go to the vet to get it mended, but how to catch a semi-feral hormonal tomcat? So the past few days I have been cat whispering the best I could, letting him get used to my presence and over the days sitting just a little closer...Yesterday I was able to pet him, and discovered he was well used to that!
That's a good thing, means he is well used to humans and can learn to trust again...

Then this morning I discovered that the way to a man's heart is indeed through his stomach... LOL. I gave him some milk (goat's milk, didn't have any other at hand) and he lapped it up as if he was in fast forward! It was very funny. Then he had a meal of fancy canned food and throughout he let me pet him and I stayed near so he learns to associate me with fun and yummy things...before I catch him over a couple of days for his vet visit.

To be continued...