Feral Cat Fridays: A Black Cat For Black Friday
Foreman was one of the first feral cats we saw on Dry Creek Hill. He was a tough guy who looked like he’d been stalking these woods for a while and it took him a long time to allow us to approach. Underneath that gruff exterior he was really a sweet old guy.
Foreman’s name was doubly determined. He behaved as foreman of the feral cat colony, at least when Ernie decided to take a break. But the real inspiration behind his name was George Foreman. When we named the identical black cats in Mama’s first litter George in honor of a long-standing family tradition that started long before George Foreman began his boxing career, we could not help but be reminded of George Foreman’s child-naming strategy. As the first to arrive on Dry Creek Hill, Foreman had to be Foreman.
When Foreman wasn’t busy defending his status in the colony, he hung out with a few good buddies. He allowed Sarge, named for his position in the hierarchy and his stripes, to share nap space and food. (Sarge’s stripes were on his chest and front legs, not visible in the photo. Cats don’t always cooperate when posing for portraits.)
But Foreman’s best buddy was Bobby, one of Chi-Chi’s littermates. They became inseparable as they grew old together and Foreman became less focused on the battle for alpha cat. Bobby was a shy, friendly guy from birth and they got along famously as they explored the woods and the clearing together.
Even with his stripes not visible, Sarge is quite the handsome one. Is Foreman’s head large in relation to his body, or does he have a ruff around his neck? Whichever, it certainly gives him a solid look — just like his namesake.
You may have said and I’ve forgotten, but I presume Chi-Chi is for Chi-Chi Rodriguez.
Sarge was a handsome guy, and one of the originals on our property, along with Foreman, Ernie, & Mama. Foreman’s head was large and he had a ruff – there’s a good full-body profile shot of him here. And Chi-Chi is for Chi-Chi Rodriguez. I think I mentioned him briefly in the post on Fuzzy (for Fuzzy Zoeller). There were 4 golfers in the litter: Chi-Chi, Fuzzy, Lanny and Bobby. Lanny and Bobby were named after Lanny and Bobby Wadkins. You couldn’t tell the difference in the 2 of them early on, but Bobby turned more brown (as you can see in the photo with Foreman) and Lanny more gray. We also discovered later that Lanny was a female, and that helped.
It’s a fun challenge working my way through all the cats. The stories interact in unexpected ways and the cast of characters in the photos is always a surprise to me. My plan is to give everyone a feature post eventually, but that also means some get mentioned several times before they get a feature. I thought about going through the entire colony in a “who came first” way, but that kept me from following stories as they arise. I decided to just wander happily through the crowd and hope for the best.