Meet Hamlet

When we moved to our house about 10 months ago I noticed a stray cat.

I would see this cat occasionally peeping out from the gutter in front of our house.

He was very skittish and I only caught a glimpse of him every now and then.

What made me take notice of him is that he had huge fluffy cheeks.

A few months ago Stephen got it into his head to befriend this cat.

(The things that man gets into his head!)

In case you didn't already know, Stephen is the Cat Whisperer.

No joke, that is how we got Bagheera.

(you can read the tale in the post from Aug 2008)

Stephen, with the patience of a master, spent the last few months trying to tame the cat.

Because of his huge cheeks (see exhibit A) and pompous, aristocratic demeanor, I named him Hamlet.

Exhibit A



Though we call him Fat Face a lot of the time.

Stephen started by putting food out for him on the path to our house and would stand in the doorway while he ate.

Then it was on the step.

Then onto the porch.



Then Hamlet would eat on the porch with Stephen standing nearby.



Then most recently Stephen has been able to pet him while he is eating.

His next step is to try and pet him with no food present.

Stephen is a very good cat whisperer. By next month he will probably have Hamlet on his lap.

Until then, Hamlet sure appreciates the food.



(Notice his L shaped tail, it is permanently that way, its pretty silly looking)

We plan to get a trap from the Humane Society soon and trap him and get him fixed.

Just to do our part to reduce the stray cat population.

And no, we have no plans to ever let him in the house or keep him.

For now though, we can make his life a little happier.