In a recent post, I mentioned that Mike and I had been “guest hosting” a feral cat that we’d named Muffin.

The cat showed up for a day or two and then was gone.   It then appeared again about 10 days ago, and that’s when the weather started getting colder.   It hung out on our porch cleaning up the leftovers from my three fat cats.  Mike thought it was going to the barn at night.   Then, as the weather got extremely cold, I made it a little box home of sorts. Hey I never claimed to be an architect.

At first, it was just the box with a blanket on top of it for insulation and a blanket inside for warmth. I then added a robe. Mike’s robe. He doesn’t wear it. Much. I tried leaving food in the garage to transition the cat to a warmer place but that didn’t work. Temperatures kept dropping. I’m worried about the bees..I’m worried about this cat. I added our grill cover to the box to give it extra protection. (The grill is stainless and has a good warranty so really…it made sense.) Soon, I drug out heating pads. I know you’re not supposed to use heating pads with pets but I was desperate and thought it would not hurt for a day or two, and it was sheltered on the porch so the cords wouldn’t get wet. And then…NO!! I came home and saw that snow had blown all over my kitty shanty town…snow had blown everywhere…even near the cords!!!! (Yes…that’s plural cords. I actually put two heating pads in the box.)

Mike said the heating pads had to go. We made a change from this…

To this…

For $69 you can get a pet heating pad. For $20 you can get a people heating pad. Go figure that out.

But that is not the interesting part of this story. When Shannon Vickers Eldreth saw my post talking about Muffin, she said…”that looks like Jacob, but you’d know if it was Jacob because he has a clipped ear where he was spayed.” Apparently Shannon and Jeff had been caring for this feral cat for years, and in appreciation for all they’ve done for him, he ran away.

“And you’d notice that ear…you would know it was him.” Shannon concluded. “Would I”… I wondered? I told her this kitty had a curly ear. I sent her this picture.

So the story unfolds. Muffin is doing the Bruce Jenner thing. Dressing like a girl, allowing us to call him “Miss Muffin” and sitting so we could not see the small amount of junk in his trunk left over from being spayed. Muffin is a MAN!!! He’s 7 years old!! If one cat year is 7 people years, Muffin is 49 and has entered a midlife crisis! He’s ran away from home and now protraying himself as a young lady.

We are going to leave Jacob/Muffin/Bruce alone and see where he wants to live. He’s obviously at an age where he knows what he wants. He may go back to Shannon and Jeff’s house, or he may stay here. We’re all fine with him doing what he feels is best for him. We are just like the Kardashians. We are accepting and will only offer love during this transition.

Update: we had to remake Jacob/Muffin/Bruce’s house to put in the new kitty heating pad. It is inflated, and he was not certain it was something he wanted to deal with. However, it’s 0 degrees out, and he made a decision to at least try it for a night or two.