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| Cornelius & Holly (LBF) |
Pen 3 has always been a home for ferals. It held an assortment of little tabbies, it was always a stop for visiting with Gregory and our beloved Dell, it became home for a colony of cats who originally came from Merritt. Of them all, only Dell and Gregory were truly tame; the others would sometimes tolerate contact, and a few cat-whisperers broke through the barriers with cats like Napoleon, but most of them would hide when the gate opened.
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| William Shakespurr (MW) |
This summer we helped out with a Calgary rescue dealing with a hoarding situation. Knowing that we would have a batch of newcomers arriving, there was a scurry to catch and transfer the remaining cats from Pen 3 to the larger Pen 4 – also home to ferals – and to clean the pen out for new inhabitants. The transfer seems to have gone well; Pen 4 has sufficient space and hiding places that the in-comers have settled comfortably, and there appears to have been no tension with the original inhabitants. As with all our newcomers, the Alberta cats were caged for a while for assessment and to allow vaccines to take hold. With few exceptions, they were released into Pen 3 and given time to settle.
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| Jason & Cornelius (BC) |
As is most usual, initially we didn’t see much of them. Between the main cabin and the smaller houses around, there were many places to hide. Typically for cats, they were most active early in the morning, and at twilight, and Sunday visitors often saw nothing of them. But the Kitty Comforters have been digging in, and every time I’m in with them, I see progress. Some were instantly friendly; there are a couple (Jenkins and Lucius) who would probably be at the Adoption Centre if it wasn’t already so full of kittens! We currently have seventeen of them – all at that tricky teenager stage where they might tame up – and they might not!
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| Mewlius Caesar (KN) |
I’m not going to try and introduce all seventeen – but the blog title comes from the fact that someone who named them was a Shakespeare lover, so you’ll get a couple of the Bard’s cats today.
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| William Shakespurr (KN) |
They are led, of course by William Shakespurr – actually, “led” is the wrong word, because he’s a very shy boy and reluctant to make contact, though he’s curious about visitors. I love his markings – he looks as if someone gave him bangs with his haircut.
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| Mewlius Caesar & Holly (LBF) |
Equally shy is Mewlius Caesar. We were a bit concerned by a potential FeLV reading of his blood-test results when he came in, and he spent extra time in a cage before a second round of tests proved to be clear. I suspect his name came from his vocalizing – he was a very loud cat to have in the Double-Wide – but now that he’s out in the pen, he’s pretty quiet again. He is easily distinguished from the others by his Groucho Marx-type moustache.
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| Cornelius (LBF) |
There was another Shakespearean cat called Mercutio (friend of Romeo, in “Romeo and Juliet”) but he was so “ridiculously friendly” (in Valerie’s words) that he never made it to Pen 3, but went straight to the Adoption Centre and found his forever home. My favourite of these Bardic cats is Cornelius (there are two Shakespearean examples of Cornelius – one in “Hamlet” and one in “Cymbeline”). This pretty boy is a little wary, but willing to venture contact – and he loves chicken. He also likes other cats – he can often be found hanging out with Holly (who is putting on grey fluff to challenge Mozart) or black Jason.
More of Jason when we meet the other black cats in a future blog...
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