Last Updated January 15, 2008

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TUXES
Approximate Birthday-01/2006

(A.K.A. TUX, TUXY, THE IMP)

We couldn't love this feral girl more if we tried. We were able to humanely trap her and get her spayed, but she is and always has been incredibly skittish. She usually comes nightly to eat from her own special food bowl (up on a flower box on our fence). She's ok with us as long as we keep a proper distance from her and don't make any quick moves. There's just something about Tuxy. She's a special girl. She's our little mascot. It's a happy night when we see Tuxy munching away at the food bowl.
When we trapped her, we didn't realize how scared she was until Mark tried to take her from the trap into a big rabbit hutch so she'd have some space before we could get her to the clinic for her spay. A few bites and a trip to the Emergency Room later ... But we love her. We should have known better. To recover from her spay, we kept her in our garage for about a month. She never trusted us enough to get close to her. She pretty much lived in the garage's rafters. The first 4 pictures above are either under the bike cover on Mark's motorcycle or in the rafters amongst the motorcycle parts. The last pic is of Tuxy on her flower box on our fence.

BB
Approximate Birthday-01/2006

(A.K.A. BEEBE, BEEBEREE, MR. COOL, THE DUDE, BBC)

BB is one cool cat. He is the the essence of cool. He doesn't run and he doesn't think twice. He likes just about everyone and will let you talk to him and pet him lightly, but that's about enough, thank you very much! He's a bit of a commitment-phobe when it comes to people. "Just take it easy. Don't tie me down, babe. It's nothing personal."
BB often hangs around with either Tuxes or Cali, even though all three have been neutered/spayed for months and months. BB opts to stay in the garage with Cali some nights. Other nights, he's prowling with Tuxes. I'm sure he does a touch of solo carousing as well. He's really the neighborhood cat. Seems like he's never met a stranger. Everyone knows him and everyone loves him as far as I can tell.
BB and Tuxes had what I consider to be the first true cat love story I've ever seen. BB was solo during daytime hours, but as soon as Tuxes came out of hiding when it got dark, they were usually inseparable. Tuxy is a very skittish girl, so he's guard her while she ate at our outside bowl and they'd playfully swat at each other's heads. In March 2007, we took BB in to be neutered. He recovered nicely and was no problem at all. We noticed their interactions before we neutered him, so we thought BB might not care about her after. Nothing could be further from the truth. A few weeks later, we humanely trapped Tuxes (BB was no challenge to catch in the least), so we could spay her. BB obviously missed her the few days she was in the clinic. We kept Tuxes in a large rabbit hutch in the garage the first few days after her spay, so she wouldn't jump around too much and hurt herself. Well, BB would Tuxy or Mark or me and would insist on coming in the garage. We weren't sure it was a good idea, but BB such a jovial dude that we thought we could handle him if he started misbehaving. BB, sweet soul, would lie as near to her as he could and stand vigil. He was still eating and drinking and such, so he wasn't on a hunger strike, but he wanted to be near her and she him. It seemed to calm her. After the 2-3 days of her rabbit-hutch recovery was over, we let her out of the cage to live in the garage, day and night--her spay had been complicated because, as we later found out, she'd been pregnant, so we wanted to take extra care that she wouldn't hurt herself; therefore, I was unwilling to just open the door and let her go without living in a safe place for a few more weeks. Nearly every night, BB would come to spend the night with her. If we surprised them, we'd find Tuxes and BB lounging together on one of our motorcyles or on a cloth folding chair. Without BB, she only lived in the rafters of the garage. I don't think she came down to eat, drink, or use the litter pan, until BB joined her at night. All these many months later, we still see them together sometimes, always at night, still teasing each other and taking turns eating. I've never seen such cat devotion.

GIGA


Giga's a short-haired orange tabby and white boy we neutered in August 2007. He was quite feral, but he has been a food bowl regular for several months and has warmed up to us recently. Now, he cries for me to come out to pet him and talk to him. He's pretty chatty. He has been territorial in the past, but he's calmed down now that he's getting special attention.

DELTA

Delta's a short-haired black male like BB but much more skittish. Delta doesn't trust us as yet, but he is a regular at the outdoor food bowl.

CC


CC was a regular at our outside food bowl for a while. He was friendly, so we let him stay in the garage and got him neutered. We haven't seen him since we let him out after his recovery from being neutered. He was very friendly and quite a talker, so I imagine he talked his way right into someone's home.
The unowned neighborhood cats we've spayed/neutered are: Bridget Spay: 3/13/2007; BB Neuter: 3/22/2007; Tuxes Spay: 4/9/2007; CC Neuter: 4/26/2007; Cali Co Spayed: 7/10/2007; Giga Neuter: 8/17/2007.
Please spay or neuter unowned cats in your neighborhood. It helps so much more than you can imagine--these cats could've been responsible for so many kittens.