Black Cats in the Front Courtyard

Allen (KN)

Black Cat Syndrome is indeed a thing!  It takes concentration to recognize the details behind all the black fur, and when that black fur is wary and hiding, it can be hard to distinguish one black cat from another. We have a lot of black cats in the Front Courtyard of the Sanctuary, and learning who’s who is largely a process of elimination. I have to confess that I am still not good with some of the shy ones who don’t interact enough to make personality a good factor.

Reefer  (KN)

Allen is currently the largest of the black cats; having lost his buddy Kenji earlier this year, he has become more social with a whole lot of the others. He has also become braver with people, allowing petting and hand-feeding in a way that he rarely did when Kenji was alive to step up and run interference. Reefer is stockier, and is not so much black as very dark chocolate – a colour that intensifies during the summer months. Both boys are dedicated members of the chicken treats crowd. Reefer and his friend Figaro are the last of a group that came to us in 2017 from a closing shelter on the Sunshine Coast.

Bowie's tail identifies him immediately (KN)

A few of the cats are easily identified visually, though they’re wary of close contact with us. PennyLoaf, with one eye, is usually found on a shelf in the Old Rabbit Area, hiding behind a drape; occasionally she will venture into the Hill House, but will scurry back through the window if she feels insecure.  Bowie, who’s a bob-tail, is mostly spotted on the run; he hides out with his friends Janis Joplin, Joan and stumpy-tailed Jett, and all four of them want nothing to do with us! 

Caleb gets kisses from Wasabi  (BC)

Wasabi, who’s one of the three tripods in the front courtyard, is easily identified; he is out and around more frequently because he is devoted to handsome tuxie Caleb, and follows him around, nudging and grooming his buddy,

Nyla guarding "her" cage  (LBF)

There are many more less-distinguishable black cats.  Three of them are collared; Luka, who I blogged last year, mostly hangs around the sink and generally avoids other cats; the other two originally based themselves in the Connor building, but can now be found everywhere. These are the ones I’d started with when I planned this blog.  They are practically identical, and their collars are what everyone looks for. The older of the two is red-collared Nyla – also known as "the Annihilator". She came to us in 2023, and is more than 10 years old. She’s one of the cats who laid claim to the cage where she was first placed, and when it was opened, she refused to move.  She was very reactive for some time; not just cage aggression, but a believer in attack being the best form of defense. Her red collar is somewhat frayed and tatty, but she is not easy to handle, and nobody’s in a rush to replace it! In three years of living with us she has mellowed somewhat – meaning she no longer rushes to lunge at unwary visitors, But she’s no cuddly kitty, either, and volunteers have learned to treat her with respect

Harbour is working at being a lap-cat  (KN)

Harbour is almost exactly Nyla’s twin but a good bit younger, and she sports an orange collar. She came in last summer, having apparently been found as a stray at a dumpster with three teens and another female, but the Adoption Centre folks said that their fur smelt like someone had been smoking with them in the house...  The other young female, Pier, and the teen kittens, Bay, Cove and Shore were all adopted.  We think Harbour was the mom of the last three. There were a couple instances of her getting overstimulated and bite-y while at the AC – cages are smaller than at the Sanctuary, and it can be stressful for cats – so she was transferred to us.

Harbour has learned to mooch for tidbits  (BC)

There were one or two reports of reactivity, but since coming out of her cage she has settled well, and is willing to come for petting, treats and lap-time. The collar is now less of a warning, and more of identification.   Now that she’s settled, we’ll need to consider whether she's adoptable. If we could find the right cat-experienced family that were willing to put in the work and learn her boundaries, she’d probably do well in a home. 

There are still many other black cats around in the Front Courtyard: Jenny, Norah, spicy Emily, sweet Spooky, curly-tailed Benny – and that’s without taking into account all the nearly-black ones with small white markings: TicTac, Daiqiri, Alyssa, Cuddles....   Probably time for another blog!

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Lisa Brill-Friesen, Brigid Coult, Karen Nicholson

Tails from the Front Courtyard

Happy tails (TS)

The volunteer or visitor who enters with special treats in hand is welcomed by a crowd of eager cats, many of them with tails in the air – one sign of a happy cat.  But five of our front courtyard cats have to find another way to demonstrate their happiness – you see, they’re a little short in the tail department!

Carly (KN)

One of them has already been introduced – her name is Carly Simon, and she came to us as one of a bunch of farm cats. She’s among sweet Hope’s closest friends, and right now she is caged and recovering from a case of vestibular disease that has left her feeling wobbly and nauseous.  She’s making steady progress, but it may be awhile before we’re ready to let her jump and climb.

Carly's tail  (BC)

Carly looks as if her tail was broken and reset at an angle. It’s a little stumpy tail that goes in two directions, and though we wondered at first if it was an injury, when she first came to us, this little pregnant mama produced a litter of kittens, some of whom also showed the same tail mutation.

Bowie  (BC)

Jett  (KN)

The other “stumpies” in the front courtyard are Bowie and Jett. Bowie and his “rocker” buddies came in to us from  Kamloops back in 2021, and they don’t live up to their “out there” human models – they’re all very shy, and are of the dawn-and-dusk variety of cats. Bowie is a floofy black boy, with a floofy stump of a tail; Jett is shorthaired, with a short tail  They can often be found around the YellowDoor area, hiding behind the flower beds – any hint of moving in their direction, and they scuttle to find somewhere to hide.

Cheech (BC)

The other two are “rumpies” rather than “stumpies” – not true-breed Manx (who tend to be very chonky and rump-heavy) but just cats with an accidental no-tail mutation.  Chicharron (known as Cheech) is one of those “who IS that black cat?” boys, who becomes instantly identifiable when he turns his back. He has chubby cheeks, and a little splash of white on his bib. He is one of a group of cats that trappers Lisa and Ken brought in from a nearby industrial complex. We think he’s less than two years old.

Rolling over for petting  (BC)

Cheech is quite mobile, and visits all over the front courtyard.  I’ve mostly found him in the porch of the Connor, though I’m told he likes to be on the cage-tops. He’s quite shy on first acquaintance, but the more he’s petted, the wigglier and more relaxed he gets. His name (Chicharron is a Mexican-style dish of crispy pork rinds) belies his gentle nature. I think Lisa was into food names; we also have Tamale, and there’s a whole group of Thanksgiving cats to be introduced later: Cornbread, Tater, Creampuff, Truffle and others...

Hiding on her shelf in the early days with us  (BC)

The last of the group is a very distinctive dark young calico who came in as Butterflower, and had her name changed to Butterfinger. We were concerned at first that we had another Manx Syndrome cat here, because initially she didn’t use her litter box regularly, and soiled her bedding. But as she became more used to us, that eased off, and we think it was mainly a stress thing. Her name change linked with her habit of upsetting her litter-box and handing the volunteers a regular mess to clear up!

Off to hunt the flies  (BC)

Butterfinger was one of those cats who at first refused to come forward, and huddled fearfully on the shelf of her cage out of reach.  However, like Eddie, the release from the cage changed her attitude, and when approached with gentleness, she is happy to accept caresses. She is happier still to play; she is a dedicated fly-chaser when she has the opportunity, and a good feather toy has her leaping and stalking in company with the other three calicos. She’s a social girl, and seems to enjoy the company of other cats.

"Will you play with me?"  (BC)

At the Sanctuary, it’s not necessary to have a tail in order to live the good life!

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Karen Nicholson, Tim Stocker

In the ORA

Tri-paw'd Chutney is still shy - BC

The front courtyard of the Sanctuary is home to a variety of cats, many of whom roam freely to all corners except the Val Jones area (FIV cats) and the Leukemia area (confusingly, once known as Old Aids). But at night, and especially with the disappearance of our summer weather, most of them return to specific areas – and sometimes to specific beds. That’s a great help to the med-staff, who need to know where to look when medicating yet another black cat! Through our summer visiting hours one specific place is blocked off, so that shy cats have the opportunity of avoiding interaction with visitors. This area lies between the Yellow Door shed and the Hill House, and is the home to most of the front courtyard ferals.

In the ORA - BC

The Old Rabbit Area (ORA) has nothing to do with old rabbits, but in the very early days of the Sanctuary there was in fact a rabbit pen on the south side of the courtyard. The space between the two buildings was walled in and the floor paved, though the south side is still open-netted. As the cat numbers increased with the trapping of local ferals, the area was given over to the cats, and the rabbits were moved into the DoubleWide. When I arrived in 2010, we were at almost 700 cats (there had been more!) and the rabbits were Kringle, Amy, and when Amy passed, Kris.

Dixie hides in her basket behind the drapes - BC

In the Old Rabbit Area, priority is given to hiding places. The shelving around the walls and the large cat-tree in the centre are all well-draped, and the drapes remain in place unless the med-staff need to access specific cats. Sweet stubby-tailed Dixie is one of these; she is tame and touchable, but prefers to remain out of sight.

Mabel - MD

Usually a human intruder into the area walks into blank drapes and no movement. The inhabitants of the bed under the heat-lamp give resentful glares. But the production of a little edible bribery will often result in inquisitive noses and hopeful faces – even if they don’t much want to be touched. Solar and Mabel are usually in this area – they are half of a quartet of ferals that came to us from VOKRA some years ago; their brother Midnight did a jail-break through to the back courtyard and remains there.

Marmalade - KN

Our two little tripaw’d cats make this area their home. Marmalade (minus a back leg) has become much more mobile and can occasionally be found on the climbing frame on the other side of the courtyard. She emphatically does not want to be touched, but she loves chicken bits. Chutney (minus a front leg) prefers to stay around her home-zone, but enjoys contact with her select humans. She can often be found sitting up like a little meerkat.

Eddie - KN

Eddie had a home in the Hill House middle cage for some time, and was not a happy camper there; the Kitty Comforters who visited him were known to shed blood, and getting him comfortable with contact was a painful process. When the cage was opened and Eddie was out, we saw a different cat! On his first weekend out he was making nice with visitors – and no blood!  Eddie prefers to hang out in the ORA with the other littles, as does sweet Abel, the brother of Nemi. Both cats can be shy and a bit timid but overall, they have really blossomed and can be rather outgoing at times. Abel and Nemi are also very sweet. Nemi divides her time between the Connor, the climbing frame, and the ORA. Both cats are semi-feral, but on the tame end of the spectrum. Nemi and Abel are available for adoption.

Abel - BC

Nemi - BC

Many other ferals hide behind the drapes, high up by the ceiling, or in the beds that form a barrier between the two courtyards. Bobtailed Bowie will venture out, but prefers to hold himself away from humans; he is one of many black cats in the area that is happier not dealing with us – the rest of his mini-colony (Jett, Joan and Janice, who I cannot tell apart) do the crepuscular cat thing, and prefer to emerge only at dawn and dusk when there are fewer people around to scare them.

Bowie - BC

Others enjoy transitioning through the window above the heated bed which leads into the Hill House; once there, they are often found to be more willing to venture a little human contact with volunteers.

Solar enjoying the heat lamp;
can you see shy Tamale through the Hill House window? - BC

Like everywhere else, the place is well cleaned every day, but other than that, volunteers tend to stay out of it, so the ORA can remain a sanctuary within the Sanctuary for the shy and the scared. a place where they can interact without our eyes on them, and where they can feel well fed and secure for all their lives.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Melanie Draper, Karen Nicholson