Feral Cat Fridays: Sherwood Of The Forest
You’ve already met NoMo and Snowball, so let me introduce their mother, Sherwood. Sherwood came down from the uphill woods and stable area; not long after that she brought her kittens to the food bowl. Seeing her kittens was quite a surprise to us—it looked like Sherwood wasn’t far from being a kitten herself.
As with most of the cats that came down from uphill, Sherwood remained quite feral and never joined the larger colony. Instead, she kept close to her family and the few other cats that stayed around the stable. It was rare for us to see her near the house or on the deck, and when she knew she had been spotted she would beat a hasty retreat.
We were able to trap and spay Sherwood, despite her skittish nature, but it took extra time, effort, and a lot of patience. Like most of the cats from uphill, she was cautious and trap-shy. We were able to trap NoMo and Snowball, Sherwood’s children, a few weeks after the spayed Sherwood was returned to her family, so perhaps she let her children know it wasn’t as bad as it looked. In any event, Sherwood and her family didn’t seem to hold the experience against us. Life on Dry Creek Hill was good as long as there was reliable food and a pleasant clearing at the edge of the trees.
It’s interesting how different animal personalities can be. Skittishness is easily enough explained if there’s been some trauma, but occasionally I’ve known cats from the same litter who exhibit quite different levels of sociability. Sherwood was a pretty thing, even if she was choosy about her associates.
I discovered a bit of skittishness on my patio last night: a baby possum, about the size of a baseball. Apparently the adult who’s appeared at the bird feeders from time to time found a friend; now I need to rearrange things a bit to see if I can tempt the young’un to a spot where I can photograph from inside. In time, I hope it tames down a little, as the big one did.
Even Sherwood was less skittish than most of the possums I’ve seen, so you’re in a select group if you’ve managed to tame one down. I see them in our yard and trees from time to time but I haven’t seen a baby on its own like the one on your patio. Good luck with setting up the possum photo studio – there could be some interesting shots there, for sure.