I go with her and the first cat we see is "Weenie" (aka Halloween)... "Ugh," I say to my sister, "Are you sure all the cats are boys?? Because never in my life have I seen a calico boy! It's like 1 in a million!" (calico cats) Hmm, definitely a girl! (I checked) And an affectionate one too! Weenie is so friendly, that after rubbing up against my sister while she pet her, Ween then jumped down and followed my sister over to where I was ... checking out "the boys" - the other two cats, who were in fact male. :)
Boy #1 was Chloe - yes, Chloe is a boy cat. He also happens to be declawed - I checked that as well. I picked him up and touched his tiny paws - yup, definitely maimed (declawing info here). A nice boy though! I mean, he let me pick him up and everything. Apparently, an ex left him behind when the relationship ended and so the family put Chloe out so he'd have the company of the other cats. I don't know how long he'd been out, but obviously, he was my top concern and priority. I didn't feel comfortable bringing him to our place to be a barn cat when he had no claws. I mean, what would happen if whatever killed the ducks came back?? Or if the rumor is true about coyotes in our area now?! Ugh, no! I worry about my tough guy ferals enough as it is, this nice, declawed guy I had to find an inside home for!
And then there was Joey - a big white with orange spots guy who was buddies with Chloe. Could I find them a home together? Well, it was hard to evaluate him on a friendly scale since he didn't really let me touch him. He ran off at one point, but only a few feet... I could get close, but I wasn't able to touch him.After agreeing to take them, the grandmother in this family was quick to call Michelle and essentially demand she remove the cats on Friday ... while my sister would be away. Coincidentally , Friday also happened to be the services and funeral of my Aunt Mar's uncle, Edward P. Henry, which we planned to attend to support my Aunt Mar and her family who my family has known for so long. This was obviously going to be a very hectic day...
My mom and I attended the services Friday morning to support my Aunt Mat, giving our condolences and staying at the church until my Aunt Mar's husband showed up. Then, my mom and I headed out to catch the cats...
Attire for this event: dress pants, a nice shirt with a t-shirt thrown over it and I remembered to change out of my heels
Tools: 3 carriers of various sizes, a trap, some newspaper and 2 cans of smelly, yummy cat food
Then plan: get Weenie & Chloe who we could probably pick up and I had places arranged for, attempt to get Joey and set trap for him if necessary
Arrangements: Weenie to a woman who a volunteer I'm friends with knows, Chloe possibly to a person looking for a declawed cat who knows a rescuer who knows a friend of mine (or the local shelter where I know someone who will keep him safe and said he'd quickly be adopted out) and Joey to our back barn.
What actually happened??
- Chloe was caught easily. Weenie, the same. She was sprawled out in a sunny spot and let us pick her up. Joey we did have to set a trap and leave him for. His adoption got re-arranged, but they couldn't pick him up for a day or two, so he stayed in our bathroom for that time period.
- Weenie went to her foster home, get vaccinated, tested and ended up having FIV :( Her foster home knew all the facts, but had two immune compromised cats and didn't want to risk anything
- Joey was trapped fairly quickly and he came back to spend some quality, goodbye time with his buddy, Chloe, in the house where Joey definitely proved to be more feral than friendly - shying away and hiding, which consisted of smushing himself under our towel cabinet at one point. He's huge!! I have no idea how he fit himself under there...
