I really appreciated hearing about Brando.  Now I don't feel so
terrible about keeping him in the cage for a couple of weeks.  We
already have him about 4 feet up, above a dining table that cats jump
up on in a 3x4foot cage with a box in it for him to lay.  We're
re-thinking our strategy of letting him out of the cage.  If we could
let him loose in the house it would be good but there are too many ways
outside and I'm sure he's seen our other cats go out the kitty doors in
every room.

We have another cat that was given to us recently "Little One" who
suffered serious injury with a car running over its tail.  We thought
he was feral but found from the animal hospital that someone declawed
his front feet long ago.  He's suffered a LOT since it took us two to
three weeks to trap him after the accident.  He is in the only spare
room that has no cat door and needs a lot of extra care several times a
day.  They are both males and about the same age so I thought maybe put
them in the same room together; there is a draft under the door and
other cats sniff through the door, as did Ginger's cats, and then BB
would not be confined to a cage.  I was worried and still am that Buddy
Boo doesn't get sufficient exercise: he has a bowel movement only every
few days: we tried giving him small amounts of lactulose but he still
is not pooping for at least 3 days.  He is not handleable. If we leave
him alone in the room he eats his food.  He stays in the carton
otherwise and ventures out to pee and drink and eat.  Our cat litter
supplier no longer has unscented litter.  We are also worried about him
drinking his water when he has kicked the deodorized litter into it,
changing water several times daily.