If you've read the earlier thread about "Mooch's World-wide Fan Club"
you'll know that there's been interest in our little tuxie resident
stray, Mooch, who shows up regularly on our veranda for his meals. So
much so that an ad hoc fan club has been cobbled together. So far it
has members all over the USA, in the United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand. This morning in replying to one of them I described my day so
far with our little freeloader:

"I dutifully got up around just before 5:30 am this morning to feed
Mooch - it's my custom these days. Timing is everything. If I leave it
til 6:00 he'll be on the veranda when the paper guy arrives, and Mooch
will run. If I leave it later still, the neighbourhood cats will be let
out for the day and they'll try to muscle in on the food - and Mooch
will run. The only problem with 5:30 am is that it's still dark, and
there's one more potential peril: raccoons. The bandits are around
until they go into their winter torpor, and that's what happened this
morning, about five minutes into Mooch's breakfast. A big coon lumbered
purposefully up the veranda steps. I banged on the glass and yelled out
the window at him, but he ignored me and went straight for Mooch's
food. And you guessed it - Mooch ran. He had a big meal last night and
about five minutes worth of breakfast today so I probably won't see him
for hours. But just to be sure, I keep checking every few minutes to
see if he's returned."

Here's an update. At 8:30 I went downstairs from my home office for
breakfast, but like Mooch's, it was delayed. By Mooch! I looked out the
den window on the way to the kitchen and there he was on the kitchen
saying "Well? I'm back!" So of course he came first, and I fed him. All
the way across the veranda he complained about the raccoon in his
squeaky meow. I set down his grub and water and went inside to watch
him. He ate, undisturbed, licked his whiskers and sauntered off,
completely uncaring that he now has a world-wide following! Here's that
photo and story again about Mooch that Flippy so kindly included in her
great kitty website:

http://www.flippyscatpage.com/moochtwo.html