Colorado Blackie

This is Blackie, the stray that came to stay. Here's his story, as much as we know.

Last February, I noticed this big black cat hanging around our place. The closest neighbor is 1/4 mile from our house. I called her, he didn't belong to her. I called a few other neighbors and no one knew who he belonged to. During this time, my 17 year old Siamese died. I wasn't planning on getting another cat right away. That's when I made the big mistake of feeding him. One of the neighbors I called suggested I call the renters in the house 1/2 mile away. He gave me their number. I talked to the woman and she said he belonged to her daughter who had come from Colorado to visit. They had turned him outside thinking he would hang out with the barn cats. When it was time for the daughter to go back to Colorado they couldn't find him. Did they call around to the neighbors or go door to door to look for him, no. She said her daughter was coming back in May and I could just drop him off at the barn sometime. (Couldn't she come and get him?) May came and went and I heard nothing from them. During that time my granddaughter who is a little over 2 now, became attached to him, and I must confess, we did too. He is very sweet and lets her pet him and follows us everywhere. He is the cat that goes for walks with me. He is ours now and no one had better say different. They called him Blackie, so I called him that thinking they were coming to get him in a few months. If I had known different I would have named him Punkin. I don't change his name because that would be hard for my granddaughter to comprehend, I think. He has been neutered, but I don't know his age, didn't think I needed to know it if they were coming to get him. The renters have since moved so I can't ask them. This is his blip.