Samantha

photo by Michele

This beautiful girl was brought to my attention by Marianne, who had recently met her for the first time herself. Met her properly, that is. Marianne suspects she must have come across Samantha before, as she's apparently been at the sanctuary for some time, but mistook her for Sasha, another pretty, fluffy grey & white girl with a pink nose. I've probably done the same myself, and didn't try to make contact because Sasha's always responded by running away.

It turns out that Samantha, named by Leslie after her daughter, is a bit more interested in making friends than Sasha. Marianne describes her encounter:

She was sitting on one of the chairs on the outside deck of the Newcomers area when I passed by and, when I stopped to say hello and offer a finger, she sniffed at it, then started rubbing her head up against my hand. We were having a nice little love-up until Newman came along and intruded his little self between us, at which time Samantha took off into the back yard. I followed her and she came up to again sniff my finger when I beckoned to her but Newman kept getting in between so she headed off toward the back pens. 

Samantha's still not 100% comfortable with people. When Leslie tried to introduce me last Monday evening, I was only able to get as close as the shot below before Samantha decided she really didn't want to meet me just then and trotted off into one of the back pens.

When Michele met Samantha, she found her a bit skittish. Leslie's had the best luck when she can spend one-on-one time with Samantha, but she predicts that soon more people will be able to pet this shy, sweet girl.

Mama Hollandia

This blog post is in honor of the shyer cats at RAPS, the feral cats that never learn to trust.  The cats who gratefully defer the spotlight to other more attention focused cats. These are the cats that sneak under tables, hide behind walls of blankets and scamper at the speed of light just to avoid a confrontation with us two legged creatures.

Mama Hollandia was found and trapped at a feeding station behind Hollandia Catering.  This location, along with her five kittens, inspired her unique name.  Mama Hollandia has outlived all but one of her kittens and only Chloe, a calico like her mom, lives with her in the single wide now.

Despite living at the RAPS sanctuary for 13 years now, Mama Hollandia remains very feral and refuses to make friends with the staff and volunteers at RAPS.  I found her hiding in a box under a chair in the single wide, keeping a wary eye on me.  I managed to get a few shots of her before she slunk away when I turned my back for a second.  I’m told that if you really push it and try to sneak a pet in she will hiss at you but is not likely to do any bodily damage.  Judging from the fear in her eyes, I thought I would catch what I could with my camera and leave her be without pestering her too much.

Kilby (Kilmer)

Kilby arrived at RAPS with the name Killer and this fabulous studded collar.

When staff saw what a nice cat he was, though, they decided to tweak his name a bit to give him a gentler, friendlier sounding one to go with his personality.

Kilby has been through quite a lot. He suffered some broken bones, then had megacolon, then went from chronic constipation to having terrible diarrhea. It seems to have been the last thing that became more than his owner could handle. And so Kilby came to live at the sanctuary. Staff put him on a temporary raw food diet to help treat the diarrhea, and he already seems to be improving.

Even having gone through all of this, Kilby is happy to get to know us and quick to accept pats and chin tickles. It doesn't take much at all to get him flopped on his side, kneading the air with his paws and purring away. The one thing he does not like is the flash from a camera, which I unfortunately discovered seconds after I took the photo below. That he was so frightened by the sudden bright light leads us to suspect his broken bones may have come from being hit by a car.

It took Kilby a little while to forgive me for scaring him, but within the hour we were back to rubs and purrs.

Update January 15, 2013: It looks like this little guy's had another name change, with staff finally settling on Kilmer.

Update: George and Marie

A couple of sanctuary cats have gone to live in homes of their own over the past little while.

The big (but wonderful) surprise was Marie, who's often on the crabby side and has been living at the sanctuary so long that staff initially wondered if she'd be able to adjust to living in a home. The lady who adopted her fell so totally in love with her, though, that she could see through to her best qualities while being able to accept her challenges. Best of luck, Marie, and enjoy your new home!

Marie shortly after her pre-adoption shave to get rid of those persistent mats
photo by Phaedra

George's adoption was less of a surprise, as it was well known at the sanctuary that volunteer Monica had come to love him dearly. As soon as Monica moved to a place where she could have pets, she was able to take her darling home.

Here are a couple of photos of George taking full advantage of his comfy new home where he knows he's one well-loved kitty.

photo by Monica

photo by Monica

Silvia

For the first weeks and months after the two young cats arrived at the RAPS sanctuary after being trapped near SilverCity, Silvia was a little less eager than her brother Silver to show us that she's not a feral kitty.

Silver and Silvia

Marianne remembers how Silvia would growl and hiss in response to efforts to make friends. Ayako tells me that Silvia used to remind her of how Bossa Nova was when he first came in, all hiss and no trust.

Eventually, Marianne found the time she spent sitting the Silver and Silvia's cage with them paid off, and Silvia began to first tolerate and then even start to enjoy receiving a few pats. Even so, Silvia apparently remained fairly shy until quite recently, when she started giving Leslie the odd head butt.

Now, while she doesn't come forward as quickly as her brother does, it doesn't take her much time watching him get pats and tummy rubs before she presents herself to receive her proper share of the same.

Silver

When youngster Silver and his sister Silvia were trapped around SilverCity (can you guess what inspired their names?) in October, they were thought to be feral. Silver soon proved this to be untrue. "Very early on," says Marianne, who made a point of spending time with them when they came to the sanctuary. "Silver, the tabby/white boy, showed that he's not feral by flipping over for a tummy rub as soon as contact was made."

I didn't think to introduce myself to the pair earlier because at first they used to hide behind a drape when strangers came by, and even now the sign on their cage in the Connor building warns visitors not to frighten them. It was Marianne who brought them to my attention as a couple of "cute and very sweet" cats that I might enjoy meeting. And I certainly did.  No sooner did I approach the cage door than Silver was sizing me up as a potential friend and sharer of cuddles.

Butterbean

Butterbean is one of the newest arrivals to the RAPS sanctuary.

He's thought to be around 12 years old and has the unfortunate distinction of being FIV positive and having feline leukemia. Luckily, RAPS has the facilities to care for FIV and leukemia cats.

Despite the double health whammy, Butterbean immediately showed himself to be a complete sweetheart. Even when Leslie had to bathe him on his arrival at the sanctuary, he gave her no trouble at all. And, far from holding post-bath grudges, he was so happy to cuddle with her when she introduced me to him a short time after that it was all I could do to get a photo with all his moving around.

I think it's safe to say that this boy's already secured himself a spot as a favourite of more than a few volunteers and members of sanctuary staff.