CAT LOOK-A-LIKES

29 Jul '06 6:45 am

Moosey, it is absolutely uncanny how much Mugsy looks like a feral cat who lived in the apartment complex where I worked, oh, so many years ago.

Let’s see if I can tell this briefly (most people say I don’t know the meaning of the word, but I do. I just don’t know how to apply it in talking or writing.) Laughing

I worked as a Mental Health Housing Case Manager, with an apartment/office in one of the low income projects. The people living there were not allowed pets (a regulation I fought hard to get changed.) Still the complex was overrun with cats. My clients and the elderly tenants who also lived in the complex fed them, and they multiplied and multiplied and....well, you get the idea.

Whenever I could catch a new mamma and young kittens I would take them to the local shelter where they were cared for and adopted, but this was a drop in the bucket.

Finally one the police officers who patrolled that area offered to help. His wife was a veterinarian! With their help we would catch as many cats as we could and that wonderful lady would spay or neuter them for free. If she could not find a home for them, they were brought back to the complex and released...where they continued their job of keeping the rodent population under control...sort of...

One of the most prolific breeders was a sweetheart we all called Cally and she could have been Mugsy’s twin. One of her last litters were four darling fur balls, wild as a March hares. I caught three of them and kept them at my home until the shelter had an opening for them. (This was before the wonderful police officer and his angel of a wife.)

One of my clients finally caught the fourth one, a beautiful orange tabby. She called him Precious, and he was, although he was never quite tamed except with her. By this time the Housing Authority had relented and small pets were allowed. Yea!!

Years later, after I had retired, this client had to go into a nursing home and asked me to take Precious. I did, and kept him until he died about two years ago. Funny how sometimes things have a way of coming full circle, isn’t it?

I never got a picture of him, but a friend of mine has a feral cat she has tamed and except for the color of the eyes, he is an exact duplicate of Precious. I ask if I could share his picture with you and she agreed.

In reality, were we to put Mugsy and Cally side by side (and Precious beside Skidaddle) there may be a world of differences, but in the memory's eye...

4 Aug '06 3:02 am

like a small tiger indeed !

6 Aug '06 9:20 am

Skidaddle is lovely! Not unlike my Fluff-Fluff, in fact he (he is a he?) has a much nicer expression on his face! Sorry, FF, but you always look a bit disdainful!

And what a beautiful colour blend he does wth the rug he's lying on. Thanks for sharing your cat stories. Don't try to be brief - life's too long!
Cheers