Shadrack

A common introduction for visitors to the Sanctuary cats follows entry into the Double-wide trailer. As in most areas, cats who are eager for human contact hang around within reach, but there is always a little crowd up on the top of the cages – anxious for attention, but not quite sure that they want to be too close to hands. Waving paws and cute poses are intended to attract attention – and treats.

CF

 The common culprits, when I first came to RAPS, were this little bunch – Shadrack, Dekka, Minky and Danny. We’ve lost the last two in the intervening years, but Shadrack and Dekka love their treats so much that they’ve lost all their fear of humans and are eager for petting (especially if chicken is offered!)
Shadrack came to the Sanctuary in 2010 with his brother Shakey from a situation at a cement plant where they were trapped and brought to safety. Shakey, as you might guess from the name, had a neurological condition that made him a little unsteady on his paws. One of our volunteers fell in love with him, and adopted him to a home where he would be kept safe. 

Volunteer Chris Stewart, who knew them both, said that Shakey was friendly from the start, but Shadrack was more wary of humans and not ready to be handled. Once his brother had been adopted, he joined the cage-top crowd, where he could mooch just out of arms-reach.

Shadrack & Jingles - photographer unknown

Safety, of course, is moot: when there’s another aggressive cat on the cage-top, sometimes you’re safer on the floor.
Gradually Shadrack became more relaxed, and joined not only the crowd on the floor, but also the crowd out in the gardens.

He’s not an easy cat to photograph – he’s one of those very active boys, constantly on the move – and the common reaction to a camera focus is to investigate it as closely as possible

With me he’s become more and more affectionate; he’s not yet ready to be picked up and cuddled, but the paws come up on my lap, and he kneads and blinks his love.  Chicken is a bonus – he’s another of the chicken-addicts (though not as extreme as Owl!) but even when there are no goodies, he enjoys being fussed over.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Claire Fossey & Michele Wright

Danny

This handsome ginger fellow lives in the doublewide trailer at the sanctuary and can often be found on top of the cages.

Danny is a longtime resident of the sanctuary. Leslie remembers when he first came in he was in a cage together with some ferals, so it was unclear whether he was feral himself or just a frightened stray. Either way, it didn't take him long to lose his fear of the humans caring for him.

photo by Barbara

While he seems to like human attention for cuddles' sake well enough, what Danny is most enthusiastic about is food. Teaming up with cats like Dekka (pictured below), Minky and Shadrack, he dances, rubs and generally pulls out all the cuteness stops in a performance put on by the group most evenings at dinnertime. Like Dekka, he's also been known to reach down and paw at the head of a human standing within range if the dance routine alone isn't getting results quite quickly enough for a hungry kitty's taste.

Dekka and Danny

photo by Barbara

Seven

With all the cats living at the sanctuary, there's plenty of opportunity to see a wide variety of cuddle styles. Some feel threatened if you look at them while stroking them, some are deeply offended if you look at anybody else; some want to rub noses, others will bite noses; some appreciate a soft touch, others live for a vigorous rubdown...

While I'd run across her before without really knowing who she was over the course of my volunteer shifts in the doublewide, it wasn't until Ann asked me if I wanted to go see the "slappy cat" (oh Ann, you have a way with words!) that I got a proper introduction.

I wasn't initially sure if I did want to visit a slappy cat, the image coming to my mind just then being more along the lines of Dekka, where the recipient of the slaps would be me. But, as you can probably guess from the intro, Seven wants all the slappies for herself. Translation: if you pat her back and sides just by the base of her tail in the manner a toddler will try to pat a dog (palm down, fingers spread, whap, whap, whap), Seven is really, really happy. Purring, head rubbing, bum-in-the-air happy.

Seven is another one of those cats who was surrendered for inappropriate peeing. Her family managed to live with it in their previous home, but when they moved to a rental home, they knew they couldn't have her peeing on the flooring there.

And has she ceased engaging in her little bad habit since she came to the sanctuary? Oh no. Marianne says she "likes to make some kind of point by doing her business right beside a litter box!" It's too bad, since she's a lovely cat. I wish we could it explain it to her and the other pee-ers somehow: "Look, you be living in a nice home with nice people if you could Just Stop Peeing on stuff!"

It was hard for Seven's family to give her up, as is often the case when people find they have no option but to surrender a pet. People will say they plan to come and visit the cat they've given up, and sometimes they do... for a time. Seven, though, still gets her visits just as promised.

And she's got the rest of us too, available and willing to pat her just the way she likes it.
 

Dekka

 photo provided by RAPS

"I'm wild," reads the caption next to this photo on the RAPS sanctuary gallery page, "but I love chicken sooooo much, I'm almost ready to let my feeders pet me."

Dekka is one of the many ferals who love to be up on top of the cages where they can feel safe and keep a close eye on the movements of the bipeds.

Lately, Dekka & Co. have taken to whapping passers-by on the head if they catch wind of treats being handed out. Dekka is also not above engaging in gratuitous acts of cuteness to score a little extra something food-wise.