Uh-oh. One of these days, Mister O'Malley'll follow you inside....

I'm fine with that as long as he's OK with remaining an indoor/outdoor cat whose litter box is the great outdoors. I have exposed brick walls, hardwood floors, and mostly wood furniture, so my apartment has relatively little that's vulnerable to feline destruction.

If he does, you'll want to get him fixed. It'll cut down on the inclination to mark.

In that case, outside he stays. I want him to continue fathering broods of feral and predatory little kittens that will keep mice far, far away from my building.

Jesse, adding on to the yay your dads friends thing. Dang, I hope I've got friends like that when I'm old.

Also, y'all with the heat issues should move to Seattle.

Jesse, the dessert thing is simply adorable.

I feel moderately bilious today.

Matt, if it makes any difference, you can get him fixed, keep him mostly indoors, and he'll still drive the mice away. When I had two fixed cats in my apartment, I never, ever, ever had a mouse problem. The rest of the building? Oh hells yes. My apartment and the apartment of the one other cat owner? Totally mouse-free, and one of the neighbors offered to have my cats over for a playdate just so they could stink her apartment up with their cattiness and the mice would leave.

(eta, and yes, I realize this makes me sound like someone in a Matt Groening cartoon: My cats in fact smelled very nice! Just not to mice.)

Mind, this may make it slightly worse for your neighbors, as it doesn't eliminate the mice, just makes them prefer other people's places to yours. But, fine, they can go get their own alley cats.

Yeah, I was biting my tongue on the cat-fixing-over-feral-population-better-for-cat-and-cat-population thing (my parents curate a feral colony, all are fixed or on BC, it's made for a more healthy colony,) and JZ enabled me to continue to do so. Also, my complex was completely mouse infested. In the 12 yrs I lived there, I encounter...what? 3? Presence of catsmell alone does it.

More feral cats is pretty much always a bad choice, isn't it?

Ungh. Had pain therapist tonight. Exhausted. Night, night!

A successful trap-neuter-release program in my neighborhood reduced the stray cat population drastically. This summer there have been more songbirds and butterflies and little wildlife like skinks than I've seen here before. It's nice. And no mice, because I have three cats indoors and there are still a couple ferals moseying around outside.

Meeting another deadline, but a belated thanks Trudy. Anyone who liked the Wendy's video, can you please link on Facebook, twitter and other social media? It is hard to find a way to be funny about an issue as serious as this, and humor can reach people a more straightforward approach won't.