Tux came into our lives without us looking for a cat. When I would walk Ginger, I would see him in the church parking lot. We saw him for a long time. Then he decided to start walking with Ginger. He would come up to us and situate himself on the other side of Ginger. He was afraid of me, but he tried to walk almost right up against Ginger. We asked around and no one knew where he came from, but he'd been hanging out for over a year. We started putting food on our deck for him, and he started sleeping under our porch.
Everyday he would see us walking and take walks with us. Sometimes three times a day! I could tell he wasn't used to people, so I didn't approach him. I would just talk to him. After 5 months, he finally appeared to want me to try and pet him. He just kind of backed up to me and waited. I think he was still a little afraid. I started by petting his tail. Then I just petted the back part of him. If he saw my hand coming, he would start to dart away a foot or so. However, after a few days of this, he would come to be petted.
After a while, I started picking him up and holding him in my lap to pet him. He wouldn't stay long at first, but then he got more comfortable. I started leaving our sliding door on the deck open just wide enough for him to come in. He would pop his head in and run back out. Then, he would walk in a foot or two and then go back out. Eventually, he would come in and lay down for a while. This is when we adopted him (or should I say he adopted us).
By the end of the week, he was sleeping inside at night, but he wanted out during the day. The condos where we live do not allow outside cats, so we worked at keeping him in for longer periods of time. We got to the point where we kept him in all the time except that we took him with us when we walked Ginger at night, right before bed. He really enjoyed getting out and walking with us.
We moved to Florida in October of 1999. Before we moved from North Carolina, Tux became an indoor cat, because he no longer wanted me to put Advantage on him, and I didn't want him to go out and get fleas.
He has truly become domesticated and is quite content to stay inside. Most nights he chooses to sleep between Paul and my pillows.
