An hour ago, after ten days and 18ish hours he was back on our back doorstep. He has been in a fight which unfortunately is the norm for feral tomcats, has what appears to be an infected wound behind his right ear and was walking with a limp but did not appear to have lost much weight. We of course cannot touch him, he won't allow any of us to approach close enough to even sneak a quick caress, so we are left with visual monitoring of his condition.
He didn't eat much so he wasn't famished but he did drink all of his small bowl of warm milk. I think the 'small bowl' is more properly called a 6 ounce custard cup. Or ramekin. Or both..
Since he did not appear to have lost any noticeable weight and was not famished, either hunting has been really good even with the snow and ice or he has another human subject in his catdom that gives him offerings of food also. I'm leaning toward the latter explanation since if hunting were that good our trio of in/outdoor cats would have been bringing us many gifts over the same timespan.
We will see if he returns to his 'normal' schedule of visitations or not.
Animals teach us so much; and they teach us so much about us.
Prayers have been answered! So happy for you and your family that he has bestowed a visit upon youse!
I’m glad your part-time feline overlord is back! Jake gets in fights, too, even though he’s not a tomcat.