Inky

Inky's one of those cats who've been at the cat sanctuary for so long that the details of where he originally came from are a bit fuzzy. It's also unclear whether he came to us as a feral unused to people or a frightened stray. Over time, though, he started to let people at RAPS see what a sweetheart he is.

Inky usually hangs out in the back yard or the tea room. I got a chance to meet him this week because he'd been brought in to one of the cages in the doublewide for some fattening up and a little TLC ("give him love and treats" says the sign on his door). Inky's friendly with people but, like Elmo, tends to be quite timid with other cats and so lets himself be much too easily pushed away from supper dishes without having a chance to eat his fill. Leslie has him on her list of cats who get specially served a little something extra to compensate, but even then it can be challenging to get him to eat properly when he backs off if another cat so much as approaches the plate she's put in front of him.

Inky doesn't seem to mind his time in the cage, and loves receiving visitors while he's there. I'd barely entered before he was purring and coming forward for cuddles. Before long, he was treating me to cheerful little headbutts to my forehead any time I leaned close enough. Needless to say, with all this purring and rubbing and headbutting, it wasn't easy to get a proper photo of him.