Little Dude Found!
Today is a great day, for one simple reason: I found Little Dude!
Here's the thing. I've been feeding/caretaking the feral cat colony at my apartment building for almost three years now. Little Dude was a longtime favorite, because he was so friendly and excitable and loud (meowed his fool head off, did that one), and because no matter whether there was already food out or already someone in the act of feeding them, when he saw me he would come a-runnin'. The last time I saw him was around Christmas. It took a week or so but I realized he seemed to be gone. Sometimes the cats go AWOL for a few days at a time - territorial battles or what-have-you. But by late January I was pretty sure he wasn't coming back.
When you're taking care of animals that can't by any stretch be called "yours" (semantic debate over ownership of another living thing another time, perhaps), you have to have a certain attitude. You can't (or at least I can't) not get attached, so when you form attachments you have to be realistic about them. They're not your pets; they live outside; it's a rough life and we never know what may happen to them. But it was hard, not knowing. I kept thinking to ask one of the other two regular feeders (a guy on the 7th floor; an older woman on the 4th floor) if they'd seen him, but I'd only seen them in passing in the past few months.
This morning the woman on the 4th floor came up while I was putting out their food (Smudgy and Scuttlebutt the only ones showing up, and River, who follows 4th-floor-lady around) and we got to chatting. AND THEN, she told me that she took in one of them. When she described him, I knew - it had to be Little Dude! I asked when she took him in and she said it was on January 1, which totally fits, since I hadn't seen him since Christmas.
So there you have it, a happy ending! Little Dude's new name is "Charlie." The vet says he is SEVEN years old but considering how tiny he was when I first saw him (around January '07), I can't quite believe it. She says his teeth are bad so maybe that threw off their estimates? Also he is FIV-positive, but she has no other cats (her last, who lived to be 18, passed away last summer), so it actually worked out incredibly well. I would have loved to have taken him in but it was never very feasible, and even less so knowing about his FIV status.
I had to get to work and it seemed rude to invite myself over, but the next time I see her I think I will ask if she minds if I stop by and visit Charlie, for old times' sake.
Fare well, Little Dude! I am so glad you found a home!
I don't have a lot of decent pictures of any of the outdoor cats, but Kim took a good one and Amber got one too, of me feeding him.
Here's the thing. I've been feeding/caretaking the feral cat colony at my apartment building for almost three years now. Little Dude was a longtime favorite, because he was so friendly and excitable and loud (meowed his fool head off, did that one), and because no matter whether there was already food out or already someone in the act of feeding them, when he saw me he would come a-runnin'. The last time I saw him was around Christmas. It took a week or so but I realized he seemed to be gone. Sometimes the cats go AWOL for a few days at a time - territorial battles or what-have-you. But by late January I was pretty sure he wasn't coming back.
When you're taking care of animals that can't by any stretch be called "yours" (semantic debate over ownership of another living thing another time, perhaps), you have to have a certain attitude. You can't (or at least I can't) not get attached, so when you form attachments you have to be realistic about them. They're not your pets; they live outside; it's a rough life and we never know what may happen to them. But it was hard, not knowing. I kept thinking to ask one of the other two regular feeders (a guy on the 7th floor; an older woman on the 4th floor) if they'd seen him, but I'd only seen them in passing in the past few months.
This morning the woman on the 4th floor came up while I was putting out their food (Smudgy and Scuttlebutt the only ones showing up, and River, who follows 4th-floor-lady around) and we got to chatting. AND THEN, she told me that she took in one of them. When she described him, I knew - it had to be Little Dude! I asked when she took him in and she said it was on January 1, which totally fits, since I hadn't seen him since Christmas.
So there you have it, a happy ending! Little Dude's new name is "Charlie." The vet says he is SEVEN years old but considering how tiny he was when I first saw him (around January '07), I can't quite believe it. She says his teeth are bad so maybe that threw off their estimates? Also he is FIV-positive, but she has no other cats (her last, who lived to be 18, passed away last summer), so it actually worked out incredibly well. I would have loved to have taken him in but it was never very feasible, and even less so knowing about his FIV status.
I had to get to work and it seemed rude to invite myself over, but the next time I see her I think I will ask if she minds if I stop by and visit Charlie, for old times' sake.
Fare well, Little Dude! I am so glad you found a home!
I don't have a lot of decent pictures of any of the outdoor cats, but Kim took a good one and Amber got one too, of me feeding him.