Brownie - A feral cat I got from my dear friend Jane

Lost Brown Cat in Redwood City, CA

Brownie's Story

Brownie is a feral cat I inherited from my dear friend Jane, who recently passed away from cancer. 

I'd fed Brownie on occasion, over the last decade, when my friend Jane would go on vacation. But I took him in, when she was going in and out of the hospital in the summer and fall of 2018. Jane had asked me to take care of him. 



You can see a short video about Brownie (with some video footage of him), here:






I got him trapped, fixed and microchipped, and gave him a bath, which I know he didn't like, but I had to. He was covered in his own poop, as many feral cats are when they find themselves stuck in a trap.

After I bathed him, I tried to comfort him by rubbing his chin and back, but now I realize that this may have caused him to develop a negative association with human touch, because I did this a little too soon (he continued to hiss at me when I picked him up, but at least he let me do it every time, without scratching or biting). 

Brownie is extremely shy, skittish, and still very feral.  I kept him indoors at Jane's property for a few months. I was taking care of Jane at different times, while she was in and out of the hospital and different nursing care facilities (4 nursing care facility visits and 5 trips to the hospital). The plan was to bring him to my house and let him live here with my other cats. But I was so busy trying to save Jane's life, and help her with her affairs, AND move into her duplex at the same time, I just didn't have the time to pay him much attention at all. 

Because I wasn't able to spend much time with Brownie, and had to leave him alone a lot, while I focused on taking care of his owner instead, he was never particularly fond of me. But I wasn't sure what else to do. I knew if I let him back outside, I might never be able to catch him again (and bring him to my house so I could feed him regularly).  Eventually, I did bring him here, and at least he knows he has a safe place to stay, and he can get food from me whenever he's hungry.

The Back Story about Brownie



I was happy to take Brownie in, especially because he is the brother of my (slightly less feral) cat, Booboo, whom you can see in this photo to the left (Booboo is on the top step). They were both born in 2003, in the back yard of Jane's duplex in Mountain View.  Jane called me one day to tell me there was a litter of kittens born in her back yard, and when I went over there, I couldn't believe how many kittens there were. It looked like about a dozen, I kid you not. They were all either black, or dark/striped (tortie), and I believe one of them was brown (which is why I believe Brownie was in the litter). I didn't understand anything about trapping cats or kittens at the time, and many of them ran away before I was able to catch them. I believe Brownie was one of those cats.


In 2004, someone lent me a cat trap, and I was able to catch (and adopt) Booboo's (and Brownie's) Mom, Mummie. They always hung out together and I didn't want them to be separated. I would have taken Brownie, too, but he didn't show up at Jane's place until Mummie and Booboo were gone (I think it's kind of a territory thing). 

When he did show up, Jane started feeding him, on a (mostly) regular basis (sometimes she'd be gone for days, and would either ask a friend to feed him, or she'd hope he'd catch a few rats in the meantime). She fed him for the last 15 years. He was her outdoor feral cat. 

I don't know 100% for sure that Brownie was in the same litter as Booboo, but I'm almost positive, since they look just like each other (just different colors).  I'm pasting a larger pic, below. Booboo is on the top step, Brownie on the lower. This pic doesn't do the best job of showing how brown he is, because he's slightly in the shade from the post, but he is like a chocolate brown in the sun.







Because I was able to earn Booboo's trust (and Mummie's also), and am able to pick him up and hold him and he purrs, I wrongly assumed that Brownie would come around, via the same methods. But I realized (too late) that, even though Booboo was an adult cat - about 3 years old when I got him - he wasn't quite as "set in his ways" as Brownie, who is about 15 years old, now. I think that, because I picked him up too soon, he developed a negative association with human touch, because he was completely terrified of me when I did pick him up for the first time, and many times after that. He never quite understood why I took him, or why he was forced to move from his original place. For all a feral cat knows, you're planning on eating them for dinner. 

Eventually, I believe he did come to understand that my house was a moderately safe place to be, because he could see me picking up all of my other cats, and hear them purr, so he could see the "social proof" that I'm probably not going to do harm to him. And I think he liked it that he knew he could get fed a lot, here. 

Just before Christmas, I bought him this cat bed, because it's a "self heating" type, and it had bee pretty cold. But something weird happened. The day after he spent the night sleeping it, he woke up with what appeared to be a stiff neck. He was walking funny... like... kind of lopsided. At first, I wondered if that happened because he slept funny, in an awkward position. The bed does kind of sink in, at a weird angle, and if he was trying to keep his head on top of it - to stay aware of his surroundings, as a feral cat would - he might have been sleeping in a very uncomfortable position all night.  He was walking crooked when he got up... to the point where I started to worry that maybe he'd had a stroke!

I put him, in the bed, up on the porch of the 1 bedroom unit in the back, to get some sun, but soon realized that wasn't a great idea, because his balance was off. I didn't want him falling down the stairs or off the porch.

This pic shows his head tilted at an angle. I know he just looks kind of curious in this pic, but the reason his head is tilted is because it seemed to be frozen that way all day.

Eventually, he seemed to go back to normal. So, I wasn't worried about him.

On Christmas Eve, 2019, he disappeared when one of my cats pushed a door open. I was very concerned, thinking it'd be impossible to get him back because he is so feral. But he actually came right back the next day, and went straight back into his bed. I was so happy, and this made me feel comfortable letting him outside. I know that a feral cat is generally pretty miserable being indoors. Their main concern is, they just want food, shelter, and freedom. 

Brownie went outside, and stuck around, for about 2 weeks, and he'd always come back inside. But for some reason he disappeared on Wednesday, January 10th. I opened the door for him and my cat, Bert, to go outside, and Bert came back, but Brownie never did.  I believe he was scared off by racoons, as there was a very large, ornery looking pack of them, roaming the neighborhood, recently, and they actually came into his room one evening when the door was open. 

At first I was hoping that he was just hiding out in our garage somewhere, but we realized he was not in there. The first night he disappeared, it was VERY cold. I was pretty worried he could have either had a stroke, or that raccoons could have gotten to him, but he is a very smart cat who is used to surviving on his own.

I know this will sound kooky to those who don't believe in psychics, but I did a psychic reading with a pet psychic.
I had good luck with using her in the past (she helped me to find my cat, Bert), and have recommended her to many people since then. I was impressed with the many testimonials she had on her website. 

I trust Hilary's readings and have recommended her to many other people, because she doesn't give the same general info for the same pets, over and over. She gives specifics, that would indicate details, like: a cat is stuck in a hole, and can't seem to get out, vs., say, a dog is at a construction site, far from home, or, say, a cat is at a house with orange white trim and he's hanging out in the carport.  Sometimes she can see that the cat is right inside the house!

I wanted to see if she could communicate with Brownie, to let him know that things are going to be OK, and that Jane just asked me to take him, to look out for him and make sure he was well cared for. 

I spoke with Hilary, and she told me that he was ok, and didn't think he'd had a stroke. She felt that he was doing ok, and preferred to be on his own, just hanging out in the area, basically hiding out and being independent (as he'd always been). Note: I'd be ok with that too, but am worried he could upset the neighbors by pooping in their yard, or get sick from eating rat poison, get hit by a car, or not have enough food. So I feel like it's my responsibility to look for him, especially because I told Jane I'd look after him, and I feel terrible now that he's gone. My plan is to create a large cat enclosure for him, so he has the freedom to run and jump when he wants to, and eventually we want to move to a farm where he will have a lot more space for him to run. 

Anyway, Hilary said he was hanging out just a few houses away, for awhile, and she could see him in an area that's like a large park with scattered trees, and a house with a white or beige porch railing, and a white cat with a black back. She said there are a few bushes with pink flowers on them. He had moved far enough away so that he couldn't hear when I called him. 

Jane used to bang an empty cat food can on the ground, and that was his signal that she was about to leave food for him.  So I've been doing that, but he hasn't come back. Jane had established a close enough relationship with Brownie, so that she was actually able to feed him with a spoon (but not touch him) when he was hungry. She'd mix wet food with dry food, and hold it out for him with a spoon, and he'd eat it from the spoon. I have that on video somewhere, and will try to upload it if I get a chance. 

Anyway, if you happen to see this cat anywhere, I'd be immensely grateful if you could please let me know. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this. 

Laura