Wobbly Bob

Who would ever think that Bob would be a popular name for a cat? But we’ve had several Bobs at the Sanctuary: there was Snotty Bob, with his permanent cold; quiet short-tailed Bobby in the Old Aids; we still have Belly-Rub Bobby in the front courtyard, and if you are very quiet you might occasionally see Wobbly Bob in the back.

 MW

Back courtyard Bob came to us as so many cats did 10 or so years ago – development was hitting Blundell Road between Garden City and No 4 Road, and long-standing houses were being torn down to make way for townhouse developments. An elderly man was feeding a colony of ferals in his back yard, and when he moved out, the developer turned to Richmond Homeless Cats, and Carol arrived with her traps.  There were about 10 cats trapped from that site, and they all came to us – mostly black and white “cow cats” and brown tabbies. The last to be trapped was a ragdoll cross who was whisked away by med-staff Leslie, and named Clooney.
Darla, from that group, has her own blog entry, and had her own fans, but most of the others remained quite shy. They included Sonny and Cher, Bob and Marley (do we hear a theme here?), Harmony, Cookies ‘n’ Cream, Molly and a couple of others.

PH

Bob was actually one of the first to venture out and express interest in contact with humans.  But at some time in the years he’s been with us, he had some sort of neurological episode that leaves him very unsteady on his legs. Bob’s quite a long cat, and when startled, it sometimes looks like his front end wants to go one direction and his back legs in another. This unsteadiness has understandably left him feeling vulnerable, and his former friendliness has changed to a skittish wariness.

BC

Chicken to the rescue! – he’s fairly food-motivated, and when chicken is being handed out, I am sometimes aware of Bob sneaking up behind me. He’s happier not making eye contact, but he no longer runs away when that happens, and he will actually approach closely enough that he can take food from the hand. 

BC

Life must be a pretty scary prospect for poor Bob, but I think he’s learning again that humans are his friends, and that touch is possible. We just need to encourage volunteers and visitors to move gently around him and to let him know that he’s in a place of safety.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Phaedra Hardman and Michele Wright

Bobby

If asked to list of most popular cat names, I'm not sure the name Bobby would have occurred to me. And yet, at the cat sanctuary there are four Bobbies (that I know about so far): tabby&white Bobby in the front courtyard, sneezy tuxedo Bobby in the doublewide, shy black&white Bobby in the doublewide, and orange bobtail Bobby in the Old AIDS.

This Bobby is my most recent acquaintance. Not sure yet whether we're likely to hit it off. He's a semi-feral who's been at the sanctuary for a long time but remained shy. Leslie says he will let people pet him if approached slowly and that he may even be inspired to put his bum in the air to show his approval of the petting.

Unfortunately for me, I'd already taken some photos of him with my big scary camera and its big scary flash before I learned that petting might have been a possibility. By this time, he'd decided that he didn't think much of my camera and really wasn't too sure about me. He did let me get close enough to present a fingertip for sniffing, but I'll have to go back another time, sans camera, to try and earn a proper audience.