Ferals #49 & 50: Mr. Cheekers

Feral #50: The Cat, The Myth, The Legend....Mr. Cheekers! 

Here's a fella that has been hanging around for awhile and finally became consistent (and helpfully friendly) enough to trap.

"Mr. Cheekers"

Mr. Cheekers showed up very early in 2021. He was so skinny that his ribs and spine were visible. This made his jowls especially pronounced, hence his name. Over the spring and summer, we'd see him from time to time and he started to look healthier. We assume he was taking his share of the bait food we use to attract new cats to the yard. As the months got chillier, he became very regular in the early mornings, but never in the evenings, when we typically trap. 

He was never very skittish, but like most of the cats, he wasn't exactly friendly either.  One day he decided he wanted to be pet though, and after that he kept coming back for a good jowl scratching. This was the key to trapping him. We were hoping to catch one of the new unfixed females one evening, but were having no luck attracting any unfixed cats and it was getting dark when he stopped by, so it was his turn.  He did not want to go into the trap for food, but some petting and slow movement of the food bowl into the trap while he was eating convinced him to go in.  With a tiny pat on the butt, he was all of the way in, and we closed the door.  He hasn't trusted us since.  

And with that, we reach a milestone.  Mr. Cheekers is the 50th cat from this colony we've had spayed or neutered.  Unfortunately, he's probably not the last.  🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈

Feral #49:  Unnamed and not pictured.  

We're discussing feral #49 second in this post, because this feral has not joined the list of fixed colony members.  Feral #49 was a solid grey/blue cat that we trapped shortly before Mr. Cheekers.  Unfortunately, like feral #31, this cat had an exceptionally bad case of FORL and would have had to have all of its teeth pulled.  As this is a feral cat, the vet recommended euthanasia instead, and we agreed.