Cat

The gray feral cat has a serious injury. He wasn't around for a couple of days, and when I saw him in the back yard today he was missing a bunch of fur around his neck and left shoulder, and there was a nasty looking red sore at least two inches long and an inch wide inside the fur-less patch. A couple of nights ago (I think it was Wednesday) I heard a bunch of coyotes yelping and howling with excitement in a field a few hundred feet from my back yard, and I thought they were having a fight among themselves. I now think they might have caught the gray cat and bitten him before he could escape.

He ate just a little bit this evening and then vanished. He probably doesn't want to stay around a place where another, tougher feral cat shows up frequently. It's going to be cold tonight, so I hope he finds a warm place to sleep. His injury looks bad enough that I have doubts about his survival. It's the sort of thing that's apt to get infected. I'm really going to miss that kitty if he dies. I like the other (less skittish, if not exactly friendly) feral cat, but the gray one has always been my favorite, even though he won't get within ten feet of me.