ChatNoir

About six weeks ago, this little black cat started hanging around the deck.

At first it was very skittish and would run off whenever I went outside. My neighbor told me she thought it was getting into their cats food. It was also eating the peanuts that I left out for the squirrels.

So, we reluctantly decided to feed it. We named her ChatNoir. Noir for short. I made a little house out of a Styrofoam cooler for it to sleep in and hopefully stay a little warm. We had some really cold nights a few weeks back. 

By the way, we haven't confirmed her sex but believe her pronouns to be she, her and they.

As we began to feed her, she warmed up to us pretty quickly. We were thinking she was feral but she really liked being petted. She would weave her way through your legs and rub up on you.

Then, for no reason at all, she will take a swipe at you and try to bite. This feature of her personality made us decide this cat had to go.

We tried to fit it into the schedule to trap her and taking her to SCRAPS, the local animal control authority.

I finally got around to it last Wednesday, March 23rd. I waited until about 11:30 to feed Noir. I had the trap set up and placed a can of wet food in the trap. She finally came by, smelled it, and figured out how to get to it. She walked onto the plate that sets off the trap and began eating. Nothing happened. I ended up having to go out there and trip the trap door.

I loaded her into the truck and drove to SCRAPS for the drop off. She was clearly not very happy.

I told them the story of how we came about having her and explained that she was a nice cat but would lash out unexpectedly.

They explained to me that if they determined she was feral and therefore unadoptable, they would return her to the neighborhood where she came from after having her fixed. They would clip her ear to indicate she had been processed.

She showed up back on the deck today. Two days later. She had a clipped ear. They made no attempt to adopt her out.

So now, we are ignoring her. We taped some cardboard to the French Doors to prevent her from looking in. Really, it prevents us from seeing her looking at us and wondering why we're not feeding her. 

We're looking for some other alternative for this cat but because of her unpredictable nature, we don't want her around.

It's really going to be hard to be so callous towards this cat but we don't have any other options.