Friday, June 6, 2008

Not your "average" feral cat

The average life span of a Feral cat is less than two years on their own. If they are lucky, enough to be in a colony that has a caretaker to feed them and see that they are spayed or neutered, the life span may reach five years. Very few live longer. It's a tough life out on the streets.

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Smokey the feral cat died yesterday of cancer. It was time for his rabies shot and his new caretakers suspected he was losing weight and thought there might have something wrong with his mouth. It was hard to tell because he didn't let many people get close to him but they all noticed a lot of saliva all of a sudden. When they finally got him in a crate and taken to the human society the vet there found a sizable tumor in his jaw and noted that it had all ready broken one of his teeth and was interfering with his ability to eat as well as causing him pain. The vet suggested that he be put to sleep and he was. Smokey was twelve years old.

And then the vet told Smokey's friends that Smokey was a girl all along.

We should have known. Smokey was delicate and small boned and the few times he meowed over the years the sound was high pitched and girly. We thought he had a feline speech defect.

I went to see what I had said about him over the years, as he was a big part of my working life for a long time. Feeding Smokey was my job and my job alone for years, rain or shine, day in and day out and I almost never mentioned him. When I pretty much hated everything about my job, I liked feeding Smokey. I drove into the lot and he ran out to greet me every morning. I went into the building, unlocked my office door, scooped up some cat food and went back outside and walked across the parking lot with smokey shadowing my steps. I would fill his bowl, walk back across the lot and start my day. I could have gotten there from inside the building but that required me to walk past my hated boss' office and I avoided that. Walking in the pouring rain and freezing cold was preferable.

Gradually, over the years Smokey grew a fan club and they annoyed me. They didn't hand out cat snacks when it was pouring rain but his bowl had to be filled rain or shine. But it was all right, whether he liked it or not, Smokey needed all the friends he could get.

Here is what I said about Smokey over the years:

May 2003, in the beginning

October 2005

March 2006, with Smokey photo-blogging!

June 2006

July 6, 2007

July 12, 2007

August 2007





I hadn't seen him in a year and now I won't see him again.

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