Bringing all this fanfare together, October also marks Tabby’s Place’s 10th Anniversary. Rather than banging pots and pans and tooting noisemakers (which we do every day anyway), we’re celebrating by Expanding the Mission to feral bosses cats, through targeted Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR).
Get your noisemakers ready, then go read all about it on our homepage. Go ahead; go read it. I’ll wait.
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Back? Did you make your $500,000,000,000 donation? Good.
In observance of all this, some of our feral bosses have gone ahead and hijacked this blog. The Olympics can keep their Parade of Nations; Tabby’s Place has its own procession of former feral cats. I hereby present you with a sampling of Tabby’s Place residents who have come our way from the wild, wearying outdoors.
Representing Semi-Ferals Who Decided To Stay At Tabby’s Place Forever Whether They Like Us Or Not:
Dobro and Cypress both take serious issue with the "former" part of "former ferals."Gorgonzola: The cheese still stands alone when faced with humans, but she's a cat-loving cat who's come to luuuuurve life indoors (and she's got the belly -- now fat with fat, not with kittens -- to prove it).
Hailing from the nation of I Once Was Feral But Now Am Friendly:
Many long years ago (by which I mean 3), Sylvia was 99% feral and approximately 97% deceased. She is now the snuggly purr-box whose defiant living befuddles doctors across New Jersey. Girl power!Gentle Rosemary was abandoned in a locked crate inside a barn. But rather than fuming about humans, let's just focus on her beauty as she learns to trust us.Friendly, yes. Crazy, yes. LaFawnduh, the one and only.Peggy Sue never let her blindness nor her stumpy leg dim her devotion to her kittens. Once she came to Tabby's Place, we were goners for the googly-eyed girl with the gentle soul. And, as of last night, PEGGY SUE HAS BEEN ADOPTED. YES I AM YELLING. Details to come soon.
Born To Feraldom, Raised In Love are:
The circle of love: Chooch, Chase and Mayberry came with mama Halladay, tested "FIV indeterminate"...and were incredulously, deliciously adopted all together.Born to a feral mom, Neva and Keely came to us through a big, boffo TNR mission not far from Tabby's Place.Habib and his siblings personally introduced Tabby's Place to TNR, as our very first litter from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, NJ. You're looking at the George Washington of feral cats at Tabby's Place.Since this photograph of Gandalf has already turned your brain to a happy puddle of goo, you aren't even paying attention to this caption. La la la, blarghity blargh. Friday I'm in love. Mumford Mumford Mumford. Dance Dance Dance.All feral kittens have mamas. Only four feral kittens had the Mother of the Millenium: Juanita. Here she is with her "yours, mine and ours" family of ultrakittens.Nobody knows all this better than Paquita.Sinatra may be missing a leg and a tail, but with this much personality, appendages are optional.
Representing the feral cats who made it All The Way To The R Of TNR:
Campana's life on a farm is much wider than the vista from the Tabby's Place solarium tube. (Although we do miss seeing her calico tootsies from below.)Adopted with Campana and now frolicking the same fields of gold is Jitterbug.You raised five kittens. You found a way to survive in a soon-to-be-bulldozed barn. You submitted to the indignity of being spayed (and -- eeeuuww -- kissed) by humans at Tabby's Place. What are you gonna do now? Maybelle's gonna love her life on a sprawling farm of splendor, that's what.
Representing the Utterly Unferal Ferals, who came from feral settings without a skosh of ferocity:
Edward wobbled the streets of Elizabeth, NJ, cerebellar hypoplasia and all, for an unbelievable four years before beginning his reign at Tabby's Place.If Anneke is "feral," you can paint me green and call me Gumby. (YOU CANNOT PAINT ME GREEN AND CALL ME GUMBY.)Morgan is "feral" in the same way that Justin Bieber is "magisterial" and vegan cheese is "food."I've met Care Bears more feral than Mimi. (Watch out for that Tenderheart.)
And finally, our Forever Loved former ferals:
It's hard to wrap our minds around the fact that Ike was outdoors. But it's harder still -- even after all this time -- to accept that he's really gone.From the prison where we trapped him to the transformation wrought by love in Suite FIV, Dillinger filled our days with wonder.
If ever a cat needed us, it was Chance. Blind, ancient, and starving in a lonely basement, Chance hardly knew what to do with human love once he found it at Tabby's Place. He was only with us a year, but left a love that will not let us go. I hope he would be proud that we are reaching out to his feral kindred.
I don’t always shamelessly ask you for money on this blog. But when I do, I do so for the cats. So here goes: if any of these former ferals have touched your heart, will you please swing back over to our homepage and help us wrap our love around the Dillingers and Peggy Sues and Maybelles still out there? Let’s do this together.**
*Cool kids in the 80s referred to awesome things as “boss.” So you would not be overstepping the bounds of decorum to call feral cats “boss.” Then again, you would also not be overstepping the bounds of 80s decorum to wear pants like this. Use your judgment.
**If you did, in fact, make a $500,000,000,000 donation the first time around, you are exempt from this request. 😉
Photo credits from de top: AT, UberVolunteer Jess, AT, VolJess, Volunteer/Benefactor/Superstar Heather x2, UltraVolunteer Mark x2, AT, VolJess, AT, Staff Star Sara, AT x2, Jonathan, AT, VolJess, Heather, Jess, Heather, Mark, Jess x2, AT. I have no idea who took the photo of the 80s pants, nor do I wish to know.
Angela, you left me a big weepy pile of goo! Chance was one of the best kitties at Tabby’s and he sure had no reason to be. Thanks for including his pic!!! And I squealed like a teenage girl when I saw “my” Gandalf!!! Also love the pic of Dobie…..he looks like he’s talking 🙂
Revisiting July 2019 – Yes. How we loved Ike and Dillinger and Chance. The memories are sad but sweet now – mostly sweet. Tabby’s Place, we are richer for having known and loved these special cats with giant personalities. Thank You. Forever loved, never forgotten.
Angela you are so funny! Which helped when I got to Chance. That boy was such a hard one for me. I wanted so much more for him. A time machine for starters.
Love the picture of Neva (Savannah) and Keely (Shadow). They have gotten so big since that was taken. Thanks for posting it. Shadow is such a sweet, mellow girl; Savannah is crazy, nuts!
October 16th was National Feral Cat Day.
Angela, you left me a big weepy pile of goo! Chance was one of the best kitties at Tabby’s and he sure had no reason to be. Thanks for including his pic!!! And I squealed like a teenage girl when I saw “my” Gandalf!!! Also love the pic of Dobie…..he looks like he’s talking 🙂
March 23, 2011 – “Wild Oranges” – my beloved Dillinger from the Clinton NJ TNR – thank you Tabby’s Place for stepping up – big time.
Revisiting July 2019 – Yes. How we loved Ike and Dillinger and Chance. The memories are sad but sweet now – mostly sweet. Tabby’s Place, we are richer for having known and loved these special cats with giant personalities. Thank You. Forever loved, never forgotten.
How I miss Chance…Ike…Dillinger…but I am SO grateful to have been able to know and love them — all because of Tabby’s Place.
Angela you are so funny! Which helped when I got to Chance. That boy was such a hard one for me. I wanted so much more for him. A time machine for starters.
Love the picture of Neva (Savannah) and Keely (Shadow). They have gotten so big since that was taken. Thanks for posting it. Shadow is such a sweet, mellow girl; Savannah is crazy, nuts!