Reef

Reef

Reef is one of several cats who has come to us from another shelter that was unable to get him adopted.  Like Bello, he was trapped and neutered, but was so fearful that potential adopters were unwilling to consider him.  He came into our care, caged in the Connor building while we gave him a chance to get used to the people and the smells and the other cats. There, he was very vocal, letting us know very clearly that he wanted out of there!  Volunteers and Kitty Comforters visited him, but some cats just hate cages – no matter that ours are much larger than most commercial ones – and Reef couldn’t wait to get out.

Don't bug me...

Release day came, and Reef didn’t hang around long. He quickly discovered that most of the shyer cats prefer to hang out in the Old Rabbit Area, and that there are lots of places where he can hide behind a drape or in an upper-level basket. And there he would probably have remained, if not for Carol Porteous.

Climbing down onto Carol's lap

Carol is a favourite with many of the front courtyard cats – actually, she’s a favourite everywhere she goes! – but she is usually on shift for feeding in the front, and the cats gather at the gate as she arrives. Like former volunteer Lori (now living in Alberta) she brings both freshly cooked chicken and fish, and some of the tastiest of the commercial catfoods. She has a particular gift with the very shy ones, and it’s thanks to her that I have begun to know little tripod Chutney, and Reef.

Leg-rubs

She calls him Reefie, and his head immediately pops up from the basket where he’s hiding. Within a couple of minutes, he makes his way to her, climbing down from her shoulder to her lap, and then weaving around her legs.  Because he is so confident in her presence, he is also comfortable with me, and before long I have a new lap-sitter.

Under the heat-lamp

Reef is about 5 years old, and a skinny boy; possibly life in the wild has left its mark, and it will be good to see if we can get a little more condition on him.  My guess is that he is actually a stray rather than a feral, and is now remembering what it is like to have humans giving him some love.  It’s heart-warming to see how handsome Bello, in the back courtyard, has blossomed – to the point that he’s now wearing his “adoptable” bandanna at the weekends.  Reef is still a bit too wary for that, but when there are few people around I can call his name and he will emerge and offer leg-rubs, and then lap-time. 

Watching us from above

It doesn’t take much to spook him, and there are other cats like Cuddles and Westin who get a bit jealous (Westin demonstrates his jealousy by sitting on my feet!), but every encounter makes him a little more confident.  He’s not ready yet to go further than the doorway, but he’s made such progress in the last while that I am confident that our patience will eventually be rewarded by a cat who is no longer “too feral to adopt”.

Blog & photos by Brigid Coult

Another Tri-Paw'd Cat

Handsome Guacamole  (KN)

In the last year or so, we’ve seen more three-legged cats come into our care than I remember through all the years before...  In the Front Courtyard we still have floofy orange Marmalade (missing back leg) and tuxedo Chutney (missing front leg).  Both are inhabitants of the Old Rabbit Area, the favourite base of the feral cats, and both are very wary about contact with humans, though they like to be around when tidbits are being offered.  

Front Courtyard tri-paw'd cats Chutney and Marmalade  (BC)

I have managed to persuade Chutney to accept food from my hand, but she prefers to keep her distance. Marmalade only allows Lisa to touch her, and black Wasabi, who is still very spooked by being here, is not into human contact at all.  Another Front Courtyard tripod was not with us long – sweet Jelly was shy in her cage, but blossomed into a flirt when released.  She relocated herself to the Hill House, placing herself in one of the tabletop beds, conveniently within reach, where she wiggled her way into her adopter’s heart, and found her own home. We miss you, Jelly, but we’re so happy for you!

Jelly (BC) and Trooper (BB) - now happily adopted

In the fall, volunteer Brit introduced Trooper on the blog – our brave boy who came all the way from Saskatchewan with a paw mangled by a leg-trap. Trooper made himself totally at home with the FIV cats in New Aids, and has become a lap-cat with visitors and volunteers alike. He stole someone’s heart to the point of being adopted – we will miss him, but are delighted for him.

Guacamole exploring around the back of Pen 8  (BC)

While preparing a blog early last fall about a trio of black cats in the Back Courtyard, I encountered a longhaired black boy moving slightly clumsily – and realized that this was yet another tri-paw’d cat. Like the two Front Courtyard cats above, he was wary of attention, but proved to be willing to stay around and be admired, though he was not yet ready for actual contact.  FIV+ Trooper came to us already tame and named – but the other amputees had no names when they arrived. Marmalade had been an obvious name for our orange girl, and the med staff decided to stay with the food theme for our incoming tripods, so this black boy was called Guacamole.

Guacamole (BC)

He’s a cat whose rescue was assisted by social media; Lisa tells me that he had been spotted by someone over a period of some months, but since this was Surrey and there are lots of feral cats to be found, they just assumed he was another feral.  But coming back after a visit away, they noticed that he was limping badly, and put out a Facebook call to get help for him. This is exactly the sort of thing that spurs Ken and Lisa into action; they set traps, got him in, and immediately discovered that he was seriously in need of medical care, with one paw off – perhaps caught in some sort of leghold trap – and an infected leg.  No Sanctuary stop for this boy – he went straight to the hospital for an amputation. 

Yes, I'm happy to accept petting!   (BC)

We suspect that Guacamole is in fact a stray rather than a feral; he had all the hissy wariness that tends us label a cat as a feral, but in the last six months he has gone from hiding behind Pen 8, to lolling around the courtyard even when humans are at hand. He’s not part of the chickaholic crowd, like Sylar and Pumpkin – he prefers crunchy treats to chicken – but is obviously drawn to the socializing that happens at those times.  He now allows petting when he is relaxing in one of the courtyard patio chairs – and not just the odd touch: he accepts full-body pets, and wriggles happily. 

Lindor on the table and Guacamole on the chair:
both hoping for treats!  (BC)

I find it interesting how cats react to their disabilities.  Marmalade is a chonky little girl, and a rear amputation has taken time for her to get used to; she’s not as active as front-amputee Chutney, though she can move when she needs to.  But Jelly was a rear-amputee too, and very active from the start.  I think front-amputee Trooper has had a slightly harder time of it, since it was his paw that was taken, but there was a good bit of upper leg left. You could see that he had to compensate for the movement of the affected limb. Wasabi has the same problem.  

Under the table is a favourite space  (KN)

Guacamole’s back paw was gone, and the surgeon amputated his whole leg – I assume because of infection – and he has quickly learned to balance himself;  he can keep up with most of the other cats, and can run and jump with ease.

Relaxed and enjoying the dappled sunlight (BC)

The Kitty Comforters have a constantly-updated list of Cats Who Need Attention, from Anne, the KC Coordinator.  I was so pleased to see Guacamole lead off on her recent Back Courtyard list;  the more he learns that humans are not to be feared, the better. Sadly, black cats are easy for people to overlook, and I hope that he will become comfortable enough with us that he might start interacting with our weekend visitors as well as the volunteers who know him and love him.

Blog by Brigid Coult
Photos by Brit Burant (Trooper),Brigid Coult & Karen Nicholson

Jelly

Jelly (AM)

The life of a cat living in the wild is often a short one, with dangers from the natural world and from humans. Even living in the cat pens with us, injuries can happen – sweet William Shakespurr, from pen 3, was found one morning with a broken leg, probably from an awkward jump, and has had a long convalescence before he could rejoin his buddies in the back courtyard. He was fortunate that we discovered his injury so soon, and that the RAPS Hospital was at hand for immediate surgery. Other cats are not so fortunate.  We have two little tripod (tri-paw’d?) cats in the feral area of the front courtyard, and in the last few months another three cats have come in with leg injuries that have necessitated amputation.

Come too close and I'll smack you!

The first of these three is a cute little tabby who came to us from Animal Allies in Alberta. RAPS has good relationships with rescues throughout the province and outside; Animal Allies was the rescue that all the Pen 3 cats came from, as the result of a major hoarding situation. In the most recent case, they rescued a mostly feral clowder from the home of an elderly man who had passed, and managed to neuter and rehome them in a rural area. Alberta weather doesn’t allow for the same set-up as our Sanctuary, and Animal Allies relies on farmcat placement when it comes to ferals.

Oh, really? You have tasty things?...

However, one of the cats turned out to have a broken leg – in fact, not so much broken as shattered – and the vets decided that it required amputation.  The question was then what to do with her – as a tripod, she would always be a bit more at risk, but she was not tame enough to foster out. They reached out to RAPS and we took her in, with the understanding that if she tamed enough, she might be adopted, but if she remained feral, she would have a permanent home with us. She came to us with the name of Sweet Pea, but with three recent Sweet Peas – one of them resident in the front courtyard – the Sanctuary staff decided that a name-change was in order. The two resident tripods are Marmalade and Chutney, and this little tabby was renamed Jelly.  

Hanging out in the courtyard  (KN)

For a while she was resident in a cage at the back of the Single Wide; a quiet place for her to recover,  but one in which she really didn’t get the human attention she really needed – and when she got it, there was mostly a lot of hissing and swatting! Then she was moved to one of the larger cages in the Connor. This was a very successful move – there were more volunteers around for interaction, and most of the Kitty Comforters would start there with her.

Playing outside the Hill House

Everyone who met Jelly fell in love with her!  Initially she would hiss and dab at a visitor, but it was less an angry hiss than a fearful one, and with every visitor who braved the greeting and persevered with petting and treats, she became more confident and more ready to trust.  Before long it was decided that her cage would be opened, and for a few days she would scurry from the space she knew towards the door and hide on a lower shelf for a bit, and then dash back “home”. But there’s lots of courage in that little body, and it wasn’t long before she was out in the main courtyard, and then making her home in the Hill House. 

"I love you too" slow blinks

Unlike Marmalade and Chutney, who hang out with the ferals in the Old Rabbit Area and who are wary of humans, Jelly is quite happy to approach someone new and chirp at them; she loves being petted, especially when she’s in her favourite bed on the table of the Hill House, where she wriggle-squirms and makes biscuits while enjoying caresses. The feral little girl who came to us has blossomed into a people-loving kitten, and I suspect there will be some competition over who may have the privilege of adopting her at some point soon!

Watch the blog for upcoming stories about our newer tripods...

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Anne Marchetti & Karen Nicholson

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