Its a Girl! Its a Boy, No, Its ..... Super Cat!

Rare King Cheetah Cub



African Lion Cub


If you will recall, last fall I spotted four or five little baby kittens running around the Parsells/Grand/Baldwin streets area.  They were completely wild, and I had no hopes of getting them.  I never saw them after a couple of times.  I wound up making a little shelter under a tree bench in a vacant lot on the opposite corner of where I saw them, and fed there daily throughout the winter.  Laura, sometime in January, wound up getting two of the kittens there.  Meanwhile, she had them neutered/spayed, and returned one recently.  In the meantime, one of the little guys - I believe only three survived, and never see the mom throughout this entire winter - has been gaining trust in me, and now allows me to pick him up each morning and hold him, and scratch him, and I can hear him purr.  Laura mentioned recently that if I can get the little guy, she will take him as a companion to his sibling that she has.  I did it!  I got the little bugger this morning.  Cute as a button, but very scared.  Remember, these are feral cats.  They were born outdoors.  They lived there the first months of their lives.  Sad, but hopefully this has a happy ending for this little guy.  He's scared to death sitting on my porch in the carrier until Laura picks him up sometime today.  Hooray!

I received a note from Lollipop Farms yesterday with the following update on the only cat that had not been adopted from the last update I had received.  Talkie (aka Sunny) was one of the old timers I rescued and brought to Lollipop in the last sweep, and turns out that Talkie had a microchip and had actually been brought in one other time.  The 'owner' was contacted and they legally have to give some time before they can adopt out the cat, and finally that time period was over, Talkie was shown, and was adopted!  Here is what my friend at LF says:

"Just writing with a final update! Sunny (who turned out to be a BOY!) was adopted a little while ago by someone who is bringing him to Massachusetts! Even our clinic staff thought he was a girl for the longest time... so weird!"

Too funny.  I guess I need to go back and take an anatomy course.  Thats like the third time I got the sex of a cat mixed up!

I heard from Harold's 'mom', however long she may be, and I will let you judge for yourself, and PLEASE throw in a few more bits of advice.  She is a good good person, trying to do the right thing.  I just wish Harold would cooperate!

"Let's see what the latest is...

Well, we haven't been around much during the day because of school vacation, and last night we stayed overnight at a local hotel, so poor Harold has been on his own quite a bit. I have been keeping the light in the basement crawlspace on during the day to see if that makes a difference... I could bring a radio and maybe a strobe light down there if it will keep him awake all day... ;)

I just got home around 10:00 tonight, and when I walked in the door, he came running from upstairs in a panic (he is still a little skittish) so at least I know he was making his nightly rounds. I followed him downstairs, sat on the floor with him for a few minutes, and then came upstairs to the office, and he followed me. He is laying on the floor right next to me, chirping away... and Chloe is sitting up on the desk growling at him (or maybe me... not sure). He gets up every few minutes... wanders around... comes back... Billy and Brady are away tonight, so I am going to close the door to my bedroom (Chloe will have to find someplace else to sleep!) and turn on a white noise machine so I can get some sleep... I will get out the laser pointer and try to tire him out a little bit first! The way our house is set up (it's a split level which I hate for many reasons, only one of which is trying to keep cats separated) makes it impossible to close him in any room other than the downstairs bathroom, which (as I mentioned in a previous email) worked for the first several nights and then he got sick of it and scratched and clawed to get out. Even if I could block off the basement (ground level where our family room is), that would prevent Chloe from getting down there where her litterbox is... and I really don't want to start relocating litterboxes! I wish I could give him his own room! I think that would solve everything!

I am going to look into the links that you copied below and see if I can figure anything else out... aren't cats supposed to sleep for 18 hours a day or something??? I really don't want to return him... I know you made that offer the day we picked him up, but I feel so horribly guilty... I just think we should have stuck with our original plan and taken a young female... but we didn't, so I am really trying to make the best of our 'mistake'. He is sweet... still a little jumpy and hasn't totally warmed up to Billy... and Chloe will just have to suck it up... I want to do the right thing but we shall see what happens... so he will be staying here for now!

Keep your fingers crossed for me! I'll let you know how things are going in a day or two.

Thank you for all the advice! Let's hope it works!"

This may be my last post for a while.  I am on vacation tomorrow, and then travelling, for work, for the next five days, and have to express my gratitude to Laura for taking most of my rounds in the morning.  She is a brave soul, not that at that time of the morning there is much to worry about.  Bravery comes in many forms, fear comes in many forms.  There is fear of darkness number one!  But the outcome of both is so gratifying.  To know you've fed the many cats out there that have no home, most that fear humans, but filling their bellies for at least a half a day is just so rewarding.  Summer is coming, along with the raccoons, who will gobble up the cat food, so its important that they get that one meal a day in the morning.   Until then, as they say, Godspeed!

"The tragedy of life is not so much what we suffer

but rather what we miss."