Dempster

When Leslie introduced me to this friendly black cat as "Dempster from the Dumpster," I wasn't sure what to make of the name. It turns out that the dumpster in question was simply one that Carol found the stray hanging around near while she made the rounds of her feeding sites.

photo by Barbara Doduk

Dempster has been at the sanctuary since the early days of the facility. Leslie says he tends to get overlooked these days because not everyone can easily identify which of our many black cats he is. He used to have a human friend who chose him as a favorite and would make a point of seeking him out, but the person had to stop coming regularly to the sanctuary, to the disappointment of Dempster. 

I must confess I didn't know who Dempster was myself until I was trying to photograph Cha Cha and this black cat suddenly appeared on top of the cages and kept muscling in on the action - dancing into the shot, waving his tail in my face and generally making an endearing kind of nuisance out of himself. I could do nothing but cave in, pay attention to and take pictures of him instead. Dempster was delighted... Cha Cha less so.