Moose and his siblings were born under my deck in a crawl space back in the Spring of 2003. I was not quite sure what I was going to do about the litter of kittens as they were all feral but would come up on my deck to feed througout the day and night. Eventually some of the kittens became friendly and I found homes for most of them. Moose was very grumpy and would not come to me or let me pet him. He would stand or sit at a distance and just glare at me with his big golden eyes.

I continued to feed Moose whom at the time had the name Grumpy because of his disposition. One Sunday afternoon in April of 2004 I looked out my window to see Moose curled up in one of my deck chairs sound asleep. This was not an uncommon thing and I had even placed an old towel on the chair to make it a little more comfy for him. It was a cold day and it started snowing around mid-afternoon. I was concerned because Moose did not move from the chair even though it was snowing. I went outside and tried to cover him up with the towel and he didn't move. This concerned me even more because he never came close to me or would let me come close to him. I went back into the house and continued to check on him throughout the rest of the afternoon. By late afternoon he was still curled up sound asleep. I went outside and touched him and he seemed as though he was burning up with a fever. Although I already had 2 inside cats at the time and did not really want another inside cat I decided I should bring him in and take him to the vet the next day.

The next day I took Moose to our local vet for an examination. The vet determined that Moose had a respiratory infection. The vet gave Moose a shot and some pills and sent me on my way. Now I was wondering what I had gotten myself into...a third inside cat? What was I doing???

I took Moose home and got him settled in my downstairs bathroom away from the other cats. I even brought my deck chair inside into the bathroom because that was a familiar thing for Moose and seemed to comfort him. He bounced back in a couple days and started to get playful and a little friendlier. Eventually I let Moose out of the bathroom to meet Kit-Kat and Buddy. Kit-Kat was very disgusted and wouldn't even go near Moose. Buddy was curious and a bit more friendlier to Moose than Kit-Kat.

I took photographs of Moose to my vet's office and posted them there trying to find a home for him. I only got a few calls and most of them wanted an indoor/outdoor cat. I decided I wanted Moose to be an inside cat and that was one of the stipulations to my giving him away.

I guess it was some time during late summer early Fall of 2004 that I decided Moose was going to stay. This was about the time that I had to put Kit-Kat down due to her urinary dysfunction and I thought Buddy needed to have another cat to play with.

Moose is a very quirky cat. He likes to be petted but only on his terms. He will jump up into my bed at night to be petted for a short while but then will leave when he decides he has had enough. Occasionally he will give me a swat to let me know that he is the boss. Even though he is moody and grumpy at times I still love the big old furry guy.