Adopting a Feral

More than half of our Sanctuary cats have come in as ferals.

Smithy's first reaction always used to be a hiss;
 recently he's become more curious than aggressive - BC

Feral cats are those born wild, or living wild from a very early age. They run the range from the cats that take one look at you and turn to hide (or to hiss angrily at a human interloper) to the cats who have decided that there is no better life than sitting in a human’s lap. Ferals and strays are not the same thing; a stray knows what human contact is, and though scared, may more easily revert to tame behaviour.

Our beloved Dell came in as a terrifyingly aggressive cat;
we are sure he was a stray because of how quickly he settled with us.  - MD

For many years the Sanctuary has been a refuge for ferals, as well as for owner-surrenders and health-problem cats. When we’ve had a particularly friendly cat, we have sometimes transferred it to the Shelter at 5 Road, so that it can have its chance at finding a new home.  And because for many of those years, the Sanctuary was Richmond’s best-kept secret, that was very often the only way those cats might make a new start, if they weren’t adopted by one of our volunteers.

Sandy (L) and Pebble (R) are feral sisters;  Sandy still has the horrified
feral stare and is wary of humans; Pebble loves to be petted.  - KN

What we call the semi-ferals are those cats who have adapted well to life with humans at the Sanctuary; they are often among the welcoming committee at the gate, and come looking for petting and attention. But just because they seek attention doesn’t always mean that they are adoptable – experiences with cats like Esme and Jenny led to a general no-feral-adoptions rule. A cat that appears happy to be handled at the Sanctuary may freak out when taken out of its familiar turf and put into a new home.

Sweet Jenny is entirely at home in the Single-Wide - MW

Many of us, of course, have ferals or former ferals at home. My own little Kissa, who passed last year, would hide when anyone except me or her favourite cat-sitter entered the house.  It took her more than two years of living with me before she allowed herself to lap-sit.  I have friends who care for neighbourhood ferals, who have adopted them as their humans, and who come and go from their home with great comfort.

Watson was very scared when he came in to our care;
he now lives happily with one of our volunteers.  MW

But at RAPS we feel a strong responsibility to the cats who we allow to leave in someone’s care. A cat that escapes from a new home may never return if it’s on unfamiliar territory. When you adopt a cat from the RAPS City Shelter, you will complete a questionnaire intended to ensure that you will provide a safe home for your new friend. If you adopt from the Sanctuary, you can expect, in addition, to be grilled by our Manager and/or med staff. Will this be an only cat? What is the potential access to outdoors? Do you have a room that can be a sanctuary for its first days or weeks? What’s your experience with ferals?

Peony - now called Twinkles - was a half-grown feral kitten from a composting
centre when she came to us; she's another cat who has found a home with a volunteer.  MW

Some of our former ferals we will never adopt out – cats like Simone and Latte have lived with us for years, and we would not want to have a relocation make them unhappy. For them, the compromise is sponsorship – the knowledge that you are contributing to their welfare and to a continued happy life with us. But others have become contented outgoing members of the welcoming committee, and when the right person comes along an adoption may be possible. The impetus has to come from the cat; when a visitor appears weekly and the cat makes a bee-line for them every time, discussions can take place. Sadly, many of those bonds happen with people whose situation may not allow for an adoption, and they become among our most faithful visitors in order to have time with “their” cat.

Pretty Cher is mostly a one-man cat,
and her guy comes to visit with her every Sunday - MW

The majority of adoptions from the Sanctuary are actually owner-surrender cats who may have been too stressed at the Shelter to show well, but who blossom in our hands.  Tiger, Terra, Suki (now Cassie - first blogged here by her new owner), Mookie and several others are doing very well in new homes – but the Sanctuary was never really home for them. Cats like Cricket or Silky in the front courtyard, and Willow or Hillie in the back are all a very different affair – they are all cats who have known the wild life as youngsters, and they are all used to a life without boundaries (other than the Sanctuary walls). We would need to be very sure that they had bonded with a human they had chosen, and that the potential owner understood that giving a home to a feral may be a much longer process than with a tame cat. Cricket, in particular, is outgoing and sociable with visitors (as both Jenny and Esme were), but that is no guarantee that she would be a good candidate for adoption.

Cricket loves attention - but she loves her relative freedom still more - MW

We do have feral adoption success stories – especially from among our volunteers, who establish a relationship of trust with one cat or another. But even with a feral-savvy adopter, it can take much patience, waiting for the cat to decide that it can trust again after relocation - Watson's human tells me that it took more than three months for him to come out of hiding.
Many of our ferals, friendly and shy alike, will need to live out their lives in our care, confident that with us they are in a place of safety.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Melanie Draper, Karen Nicholson, Michele Wright

Mister Valentine

Just as we have what I call the Garbo Cats (here and here), so we also have our share of cats who enjoy each others’ company. Sometime that’s no more than a tendency to stay in the same area; sometimes it’s obviously a family thing. For many years Mr Popularity in the Sanctuary was our beloved Mario, who attracted a large following of ferals who relaxed around him. We lost Mario to cancer a few years ago, and some of his ferals have followed him, most recently, Nellie, who I like to think about as being reunited with him at the Rainbow Bridge.

Couch cats

But Mario’s mantle has fallen to another gentle giant. When Salty came into the Sanctuary, he was deeply bonded with his sister Shelley, but the magic wore off, and the two now live independent lives. Shelley’s a roamer – you’ll find her all over the place. Salty, on the other hand, can usually be found in his favourite place on the double-wide couch, surrounded by a crowd of other cats.

Cinder, Salty & Ridley, Dusty - MW

Salty obviously gives off the pheromone that says “Love me! Trust me!” It’s not quite to the extent Mario had it – with Mario, sometimes everyone wanted to lie on him, and all you’d see of him in the cat-pile was a little orange and white fur at the bottom. Salty likes a little more space around him – but it’s often the same cats who are sharing the couch with him. Cinder is a regular occupant, as is Luigi, and Watson, who was adopted and who we will soon be hearing from, loved his cuddle-buddy.

Watson with Salty - PH

However, the most favoured companions are Ridley, Colin and Dusty. All three are ferals, and all three have become more approachable through their association with Salty.

Holding paws - MW

Ridley can be distinguished among the black cats in the cat-pile by a little patch of white on his chest.

Cuddling in tandem - BC

He’s still a little wary around humans, but with a not-too-full couch, it is possible to sit with the two of them and stroke Ridley without being swatted.

Salty with Colin - MW

Colin’s one of our all-black boys, distinguishable mainly by the elegant lynx-tips to his ears. He has become much more friendly overall; he’s usually underfoot at feeding-time, rising on his back legs to rub against the feeder and make sure he’s not overlooked.

Salty & Dusty snuggles - BC

Dusty and Salty could be mistaken for litter-mates – especially now he’s put on some mid-life weight. She is very wary of human contact – especially when she’s alone – but like Ridley, petting is possible when Salty is around to give her confidence. She follows him around with adoration in her eyes.

Dusty & Salty - BC

Just occasionally, all this togetherness gets to be too much for Salty, and he has to go and sit on the top of a cat tree or in a corner somewhere where nobody else can lie on him.

Salty goes solo - MW

 A little time to himself – and then he heads back to the couch and to his adoring retinue

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Phaedra Hardman and Michele Wright

Gizmo the Grey

The Cat Sanctuary has recently welcomed several new cats who are finding their places in the various different areas.

MW

As much as possible, when a cat comes to the 5 Road Shelter, we try to find a new home for it. The staff try to match personalities with potential adopters, and mostly it works – but there are always the exceptions. Several of our cats failed adoption for reasons of aggression and were transferred to the Sanctuary because they were no longer considered adoptable.

PH

Gizmo (known as Gizmo the Grey, so as not to confuse him with the recently departed orange Gizmo in the Moore House) was trapped as a feral. The people who trapped him were willing to keep him, but Gizmo was not a happy camper, and was more than ready to attack, given the least provocation. At the Sanctuary he was caged for a while, and took a very dim view of this, swatting at other cats through the mesh of his enclosure. We were not at all certain of whether he might eventually be relocated to the feral pens at the back, and the Kitty Comforters were very wary when visiting him.

BC

As we usually do in this situation, when release time comes, we try to make it a supervised release – the cage is opened at a time when the med staff are around, so that they can observe, and react if necessary. With Gizmo, attack was the best defence – there was a lot of growling and face-off confrontations with other cats, and on more than one occasion he had to be scooped up and returned to his cage. (Med staff Mollie says he still holds a grudge against her!).  But gradually he settled; he chooses not to interact with other cats, but has become quite an explorer in the back courtyard and in the Double-Wide. 

Phaedra caught him climbing the tree during the past week's snow! 

He reminds me of little grey Amber (now gone) – he’s a climber, and shy, though he’s getting better with humans. Just as we found with Watson and Chimo, the initial aggression gave way to a more sociable personality. All three of them had more than a touch of teenage brattishness about them, and all three are maturing into really nice cats (Watson has now been adopted, and Chimo is very much a back yard greeter.)

Gizmo making off with an entire bag of treats from a visitor - ML

It is interesting that our dark grey cats (almost Russian blue) are all stand-offish or aggressive. We all know Leland in the front courtyard, but Petunia, also part of that group, is a real “don’t touch me!” girl, though she is ready to accept treats. In the Newcomers, grey Chester is another for whom attack is the best defence (with other cats, at least), and his room-mate Willi is the nervous sort. And Sylar, in the back courtyard, won’t allow a human near him, though when he was caged for treatment, he was ready to accept petting.

MW

Gizmo is becoming more willing to interact with people, and to accept a caress without returning it with a swat. He may never get to the stage of being ready for adoption – but someone who is feral-savvy and has no other competing cats might be able to give him a home. As with all our semi-ferals, for an adoption to work, there needs to be a strong bond between human and cat, and a knowledge, on the human’s part, of the reading of feline body-language – not to mention a lot of patience!  Gizmo’s not there yet, but he’s learning...

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Phaedra Hardman, Moira Langley and Michele Wright

What's In A Name?

One of the questions often asked by Sunday visitors is “Who chooses the cats’ names?”  Usually the answer to that is that the med-staff do it – sometimes to a theme, sometimes focusing on an alphabetical series, sometimes because it just suits the cat.

Chatter - MW

Occasionally the vets get in on it – when Gaye took a spunky orange boy to the vet for the first time and introduced him as “Cheddar”, the vet heard “Chatter” and that’s what he’s remained.

Cagney

The cats that manage to find their way here by themselves are all named for TV detectives – we had Magnum and Colombo in the back pens, and Kojak in Old Aids and there’s Cagney in the front courtyard and Watson in the back.

Dell

One fairly new girl was named for where she was trapped: she’s Keira Knightstreet.  When she came in, her next-door neighbor, a fighter of the spit-and-lunge variety, was Xena, to give us an “X” in the alphabetical series. Our handsome Dell is also named for his source – he was found on Blundell Road.

Nasty Sandra - CP

Rarely, a name will get changed – we had a cat brought in and given the name of Loco, and I protested:  I felt he was too shy and old-fashioned to be labelled like that. I was allowed to change his name to Dickens and loved him dearly till we lost him a couple of years ago.  Sometimes the name is a behaviour descriptor; Nasty Sandra (above) lives up to her label.

Mocha- MW

Some cats seem to have more than one name: Mocha, in the Val Jones pen, is also known as Brownie to some of her fans. Mocha came in with her brother Pekoe (orange, of course) and her sister Cappucino (both passed on).

MW

In the Single-Wide we have Jarrod, also known as Yap and Charlie, also known as Tuna.

Two Lucy-cats - MW

Sometimes there are duplications – usually because a cat has come in as an owner-surrender with a name.  We have two Lucy cats, affectionately known as fat-Lucy – both are ladies of size, though Laundry Room Lucy probably outweighs Tea-Room Lucy.  There are two Hannahs – the delightful little orange-and-white girl and the leggy tabby who like to leap on people from behind. Orange Lucky in the front yard will never come face-to-face with Bengal Lucky in the back.

Chip 'n' Dale - CF & PH

And there are family pairs: Chip (in the Val Jones) is brother of Dale (in the Double-Wide); Cinder and Ella were our back courtyard greys (till we lost Ella recently); and a pair of front-courtyard orange cats just begged to be named Henrick and Daniel, for the Canuck Sedin twins.

Front-courtyard Bobby - MW

Who would think that Bobby would be a popular name for a cat? Bobby in the front courtyard is also known as Belly-Rub Bobby, for his favourite occupation; there was a double-wide cat known as Snotty Bobby, for his permanent cold; we used to have Orange Bobby (for his bob-tail) in Old Aids, and let’s not forget Wobbly-Bob in the back – he has some sort of neurological disorder and can’t always keep his legs under control, especially when startled.

Lincoln (MW) and Cinnamon Bun Lincoln (PH)

And then there are our two Lincolns in the double-wide – beautiful tawny Lincoln, so regal and affectionate to people (though not really a cat-loving boy), and Cinnamon Bun Lincoln, named for his tail formation.

But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover--
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.                                         

             T.S. Eliot – The Naming of Cats

 

Blog by Brigid Coult
Photos by Claire Fossey, Phaedra Hardman, Chris Peters, Michele Wright