Since I bought my (ex) wife & kids to Dubai some 22 years ago, weāve always had āStreet Catsā that moved in with us. Ollie Robbie, Hoppie & Kipper were all just scrounging off us to be honest.
Occassionally one of Ollie or Robbie would allow you to touch them for a tiny stroke but would then roll on their backs and sink their teeth and claws an inch deep into our hands. Hoppie was 3 legged and was terribly shy - Kipper just looked after her - neither ever showed any affection.
Sadly we lost Hoppie to a brain heamorrage then within a couple of months Kipper was gone from a broken heart.
Of course with territory empty a new cat moved in - Tiger - obviously (new wife new naming regime)
Tiger is a longer haired street cat, she came for her food but rarely came near us, but she would come in of an evening and sit on the spare chair for a snooze.
Then last December we moved - downsizing basically being fed up of having free-lloading tourists staying at our place every other week (our excuse for not being able to afford another rent increase).
We had to keep Tiger indoors for 2 weeks to settle. Then we went away for 2 weeks leaving a mate to come feed her (and Rambo our Tortoise). Tiger trashed the place - tore huge holes in the Mosquito Nets trying to get outā¦
Then we were back. First night Mrs D_P is lounging on āher chairā and Tiger hops up on her lap and stays until itās bed time. A week later she is letting herself be brushed for the first time.
Now? 8 months on, we come home from work, sheās waiting on her scratch mat. She comes and says hello. She waits for us to dump our stuff then asks us to let her out for an hour (Patio windows - ground floor Apartment).
An hour later she comes in - dinner time. She eats, heads back outside. 8:30 like clock work she now comes in, Iām laid out on the couch, watching Netflix, she mewps then hops up onto my lap looks me in the eye and says stroke me bitch.
Sheās just happy to lay there, watching telly or just purring away.
The moral of this story is:
Life is good as long as you keep a happy pussy around the house