Careen

Careen came to the RAPS cat sanctuary in April after being trapped at the Lafarge cement plant in Richmond. She was thought to be between eight months to a year old at the time. Carol named her Careen after a fellow animal rescue advocate in Washington State.

Careen is a friendly, lively youngster. She's comfortable enough with people that she was quite happy to greet and interact with me and my big camera seconds after seeing me for the first time. She has great adoption potential and will likely be moved to the No. 5 Rd. shelter soon so that more people will have a chance to meet and fall in love with her.

Dale

Dale came to the sanctuary as a feral kitten with his brother Chip. The two tabbies were named after the Disney duo Chip 'n' Dale by Leslie, who had young kids at the time.

While Chip successfully campaigned to move into the front courtyard area at the sanctuary, Dale has been content to remain in the back where he can enjoy lounging outside the tea room or cuddling up on a shelf in the doublewide. He's a friendly boy, and you can tell him apart from the other tabbies vying for your attention by his crumpled left ear.

Chip

Chip and his brother Dale arrived at the sanctuary as feral kittens some years ago, around the same time we got Bobby. They all started off in one of the back pens and the brothers got along fine, but it seems that Chip became fascinated with the out of bounds (to him) front courtyard and campaigned to be allowed through the gate into that part of the sanctuary. He eventually got his wish and now can often be found lounging at the top of the steps to the singlewide.

Chip is friendly and comfortable with people. He does take his grooming very seriously, though, so it can be a little difficult to get and hold his attention if you come across him, as I did, while he's in the middle of it.

Georgina

Georgina came to RAPS as a feral mom with kittens and was fostered by Mary Pritchard, one of our original volunteers. The name Georgina was inspired by the Gulf of Georgia Cannery in Steveston.

I came across Georgina in the back courtyard of the sanctuary last week, but she quickly let me know she wasn't entirely comfortable with people by scooting away when I got too close.

I thought that would be the end of the encounter, but Georgina surprised me by stopping just out of range, flopping upside down, and wriggling around happily.

She still wasn't interested in being touched, though, and scooted off again when I moved too close. We ended up doing this a number of times, with Georgina seeming to enjoy the attention and even waiting for me to catch up if she moved too far ahead of me, but never allowing me close enough to actually stroke her.

Leslie remembers that when Georgina was in a cage, she would hide behind her drape. Leslie tried reaching in and patting her, and Georgina started to really enjoy it.

Georgina never really got fully tame, but is starting to let people get closer. Maybe soon we'll be able to take this pretty kitty up on that tail-in-the-air invitation to give her back a nice gentle stroke. Perhaps someone has already had success with this...?

Matt

Believe it or not, Matt is the brother of grey & white Freckles (miss January 2014, for those of you who have a copy of the RAPS sanctuary calendar).

Matt is a nice cat, but tends to be shy like his sister. When I met him last week, he was hanging out in the back courtyard behind the singlewide. He wasn't too sure about meeting me at first though, and had to be coaxed into sticking around.

After some reassurance from Leslie, Matt was willing to hang out long enough for me to get a few portrait shots. For those who'd like to get to know him, I hear he loves treats and is more likely to allow approaches for cuddles when there are some treats in it for him.

Artemis

Artemis is a shy black longhair who loves friend-to-ferals Jet. She's not so sure about people, though. Here was her response to my attempt to get anything but a distant photo of her:

Artemis was one of a few cats trapped at Richmond Sushi in 2006. Others were Twilight and Lillix. Apparently, all three came to us with different names: Artemis was Tootsoya, Twilight was Rocomi, and Lillix was Wasabi. The original names didn't really stick to these three feral girls running around the back pens, and so they came to have the names we know them by today.

Lillix was brought inside and tamed early on, and Twilight has recently started to realize that she likes people even when she's not in a cage, but Artemis seems a bit more comfortable sticking to her suspicions that humans must be up to no good and are best stared at from a height.

Acura

Acura was trapped at the car dealership with the same name around 12 years ago (he had a brother named Arby after the restaurant next door). Acura was already an adult at the time, so this makes him one of the oldest cats at the sanctuary. This surprised me, as he sure doesn't look it.

Even after all this time, Acura has never really tamed up, and he still runs away when approached. Last time he was caged, Leslie made a point of spending as much time with him as possible, but he's still not really comfortable with us. My attempts to get a photo of him should give a good sense of his feelings:

And finally, a semi-closeup. He probably just wanted to get it over with so he could get rid of me.