slowly starting back

with a Kitty post. We only have one kitty now, Daisy. Daisy is a sleek, beautiful black cat with yellow eyes. And, since we ve moved, she decided that she is a dog. She was never a really affectionate cat, more the aloof type that cats are famous for. But since Prissy is gone from our household, Daisy has been much closer. She greets us at the door when we come home, she hangs out with us in whichever room we are in (scratches the bathroom door while I m sitting on the can until I let her in), and comes to me for long patting sessions, purring her head off. I kinda like the new Daisy, she is becoming a really good companion. She is quite used to D. now, in fact, she ll talk to him and hang out with him during the day. I m really happy about that, because I always thought I will never want to live with a guy who doesn t like cats.
If Daisy trusts him, he is OK. :-)))
BUT. Daisy has proven to be COMPLETELY useless as pest control. We have MICE! In the basement walls, mostly. Daisy will pretend to be interested, when they make a noise inside the wall, but she has yet to make teeth-rodent contact with anyone except our own hamster, Oreo, on one of her frequent bouts of cage-less freedom. She was very gentle with her, just gingerly picking her up, and then dropping her, startled, when she squealed. Yup, useless.
And lately, another mean side of her emerged, because Poor Homeless Kitty appeared on our back deck. Now, I know that feeding a homeless cat will inevitably lead to that cat no longer being homeless... but its been freezing cold outside and she looked so bedraggled and pathetic... She (or he) is a gray tabby, not particularly pretty, but, she is a cat, with no home, and I cant in good conscience let her die. So, Ive been taking scoops of Daisys food and putting it out in a red plastic bowl for the Poor Kitty. Poor Kitty came up and ate, hurriedly, not taking her eyes off the door, in case I decide to run out and capture or hurt her (awww). I tried to stay out of her field of vision, just kinda peeking at her through the patio door. Meanwhile, Daisy, not feeling the same way in the least about the visitor, did her own little stint. She hissed and growled through the glass, intimidating the heck out of Poor Kitty, who nonetheless knew that the mean hissing black beast is INSIDE, so she can continue devouring her food. After she was done and slinked off to wherever she lives in this freakin cold, I brought the bowl in to wash, and Daisy had to sniff EVERY inch of it, to get information about the visitor. This scene has repeated itself almost daily ever since. I tried to explain to Daisy about the importance of sharing and compassion, pointing out the GIANT bag of food that she has, along with a roof over her head, a choice of warm, comfy spots to sleep, and people to pet her, meanwhile, Poor Kitty has NOTHING, except the cupful of food we give her. Daisy doesnt care. She still defends her territory and continues to be menacingly mean.
Ill keep you posted on how this goes.
Hugs everyone!