Feral Cat Fridays: A Salute To The General
The third member of Boots’ litter inherited a prominent feature that was impossible to overlook – his white-tipped feet were a miniature version of his mother’s white boots. We had a military theme going with Sherman and Sheridan’s names, but what were we going to do about those beautiful white toes on this third member of the litter?
It was time for Chinese food and bad puns to ride to the rescue. Meet General Toes, a friendly guy despite his look-alike mother’s cranky personality. His particular skill was tangling himself up in your feet as you tried to distribute dinner to the colony. It was always wise to do a double check before taking food down the deck stairs and out into the yard if the General was around.
Some kittens intermingled with the colony from an early age, but young Toes kept close to his family. As you can see from the photos, he had a great time exploring the deck and planting areas with his sisters.
When he matured he became good friends with several other males in the colony, especially Stoney, Jackson, and Chi-Chi.
The General’s expression in this final photo captures his personality perfectly. He’s watchful, alert, and smugly confident without seeming challenging, but you don’t get the feeling that he’s looking for a friendly pat on the head. And you’d be right about that.
General Toes’ size in the photo suggests that it was taken not long before his neutering. You can see his post-neutering tipped left ear in this post’s feature photo on the home page.
Those little white feet are adorable. In the last photo, his expression reminds me of the caption I added to one of Dixie Rose’s photos: “Me, Cat. You? Worthless.”
It took me a minute to get the reference to Chinese food, but finally I did, and breathed a silent, “Ah, so.”
Although some cats in the colony tended to be shy and skittish, Toes never suffered from a low opinion of himself. He wasn’t a dominant cat in the hierarchy but he also never seemed to notice. I think he felt good about himself and that was more than enough for him. The rest of the cats could worry about who they thought was in charge. He knew.
General Toes and other equally awful puns have their origin in my years at Rice. I spent many a long, studying-avoiding night around the pool table competing in simultaneous games of 9-ball and pun-laced conversation as we attempted to defeat each other on and off the table. “General Toes” would have been a winner for merging his appearance with a Chinese food reference while also keeping the military leader theme going. I remember those nights more clearly than many, if not most, of my classes.