Feral Cat Fridays: Callie Of The Calico Ears
Tending a feral cat colony puts you in an awkward position. Your long-term goal is stopping the explosion of new cats and kittens. You live for the day that the population stabilizes and begins to decrease. But when a new mother emerges from the forest with a litter of kittens in tow you find yourself saying, “Aren’t they pretty!” and working to integrate the newcomers into the colony. You make sure fresh food and water is available and forget that this means more mouths to feed and another round of trapping and neutering.
Cody and Callie (two of Grable’s kittens) were quick to meet other colony members. They wasted no time in coming down the hill to the food bowls, no matter who else might be getting a snack or a drink at that moment. Cody was often in the lead but sister Callie was always right behind, willing to help out.
In this case, Cody and Callie found Scamper, one of the most docile and shy members of the larger colony, at the bowls. Scamper seemed puzzled and amused by the interlopers, but brave Callie was willing to join the battle.
Both Callie and Scamper looked back and realized that Cody was taking advantage of their discussion by grabbing a quick bite. Shy Scamper soon surrendered the territory and left the food for the victorious new arrivals.
Callie’s markings were unusual. She was a blue-eyed white cat, like many in our colony, but she had calico ears. She was bad at posing for photos, but look carefully at her ears and you can see the orange and brown. Whether that made her a legal tri-color calico is open to debate, but we gave her the benefit of the doubt with her name.
What beautiful kitties. That second photo brought out-loud laughter. I’ve never seen a cat with calico ears. That sounds like it ought to be the title of a story or a poem; The Cat With the Calico Ears has a nice rhythm to it. Maybe I’ll work on that someday. Or, if you want to, you’re welcome to the title.
I love that second photo, too. Callie had walked up to Scamper and hissed just before the photo. The scene is her reaction when Scamper turned around. Scamper’s reaction was “What was that about?” with no hint of aggression, but you can see that Callie was ready to confront the monster. You’re welcome to use the title as you wish. If I do something with it, too, we can publish a calico ears anthology. I’m willing to bet it would be the only one.