Story of a Tortoiseshell Cat
Meet Tortoiseshell Cats: Story of a Street Cat
This fall I had an uninvited guest. A little cat that has different colors and unique patterns with yellow, serious eyes appeared at my neighbor’s porch.
Neighbors were away and the cat was alone. Meows yet distant. She was definitely hungry. I was working on my computer while we had a brief chat with my brother. “Will we add this to our group of cats we feed?”
In Turkey we have a lot of street cats and if they’re at the city center or in crowded areas they’re doing good, foodwise.
But feeding random street cats may be good or bad to them depending on the conditions. For example if you’re not going to stay there for long and if there is nobody else going to look after them you may be doing more harm than good because the cat will get used to be fed by you, more precisely to be fed at that place. She’ll come back and forth looking for you or food at that spot while you’re not there anymore.
And also if the cat is female(you know three colored cats are female), she should be sterilized when she grows up. Because the male cats are around so she will be pregnant and in the street with maybe 3–4–5–6–7 more kittens like her. They also would need food and some care in winter.
So my brother said “I don’t know if we can handle these responsibilities.” I told him “The cat is so small, we wouldn’t realize that she is also eating. How much she could eat? The only thing what if other cats bully her?” Because we know that cats do that when a newcomer joins. My brother was also especially worried about that. “What if other cats beat her?”
I was working on my computer at night in silence when my brother returned home laughing. Heard him saying “Relax I’m not gonna hurt you, don’t bite!!”
He had brought her. “She is trying but can’t bite properly” he said. Her teeth weren’t sharp enough to hurt people.
She was afraid of us. For only that couple of hours. 😂
She ate the cat food while other cats growl at her. We were swearing in human language at other grown cats while being bodyguards of her. “Her size is one-tenth of you. What do you want from her you %$!#& ?”
Tomorrow morning she was waiting for us on the doormat. Looking directly in the eye. I had no idea at that time she was gonna be my favorite cat. “Her face looks like a beautiful Mosaic Cake.” after I shout this sentence with joy, realized that I found her name. I told everybody that we found her name.
Weeks passed quickly as Mosaic become loved by other cats. As temperature goes lower with time, they were sleeping cuddled with her.
We had another newcomer kitten those days. A male kitten. As small as a mouse. His name is “Magician”:
Mosaic was Magician’s chance. After things settle in a couple of days, she protected him. She became like a big sister to watch after him. They slept cuddled together, played games together. Running, jumping, wrestling. We didn’t have to worry about Magician at all. Mosaic was taking care of him.
This was the first time I ever met a Tortoiseshell Cat. Caring, playful, energetic, has a never ending demand to be petted. Meows when you stop petting. Meows loudly from the street when you don’t go outside that day 😂 It’s not about the food, she is full. She wants you:
About tortoiseshell cats, you should never expect a silent, cool, a self-assured cat personality like black cats. A tortoiseshell cat is more involved and wants to be in every single event 😂 She is not acting cool at all. Calls you from the street when you didn’t visit her. If you have things to do and ignore her, she climbs to your window.
Besides these naughty manners she is my favorite cat. Based on anecdotal evidence I can tell Tortoiseshell cats are deeper like black cats, but in a different personality.
