Darius

Darius is a cat with whom everyone falls in love!

MW

We think he has some British Shorthair in him – obviously, we have no idea of his breeding, but he has many of those characteristics: the broad face and stocky body, and a plushy dense coat. British Shorthairs come in a full range of colouring, though the Blue is the desired standard for showing. Darius has classic tabby markings, with the characteristic whorl pattern on his sides.

BC

He came to the City Shelter in early summer, picked up as a stray, but he was so aggressive and angry that it was thought he might actually be feral; in any case, he was obviously not a candidate for adoption, and was transferred to the Sanctuary.  As with many trapped cats, cage life was a bit overwhelming for him – until he discovered that the visits he had from staff, Kitty Comforters and other volunteers, were not in fact so scary, and often resulted in play and treats. Darius became less and less inclined to hide in his box, and more ready to interact with us.

Looking down at us, from a back deck shelf - BC

The initial few weeks in a cage is intended to give cats a chance to assimilate their surroundings, as well as getting used to the humans who will care for them. When the cage is opened, some cats (like Ruff and Sprocket) resolutely stay in their familiar corner until they feel much more confident, while others make a bee-line for the cage-tops or the back deck to put some distance between them and us. Darius was cautious, but it wasn’t long before he watched more confident cats using the door to the laundry room and then out via the cat-door, and he too made his way outside.

KN

Now he felt he had the best of both worlds – the freedom he remembered, but also the human attention with which he had become familiar.  He explored every inch of the back courtyard area, poking his way into open pens, finding toys to play with, and other cats to get to know. He’s a pretty sociable guy – not bonding with anyone else, but not afraid to interact with them. He is often one of the “on the table” cats at coffee time, migrating his way from one person to another and enjoying the attention.

Darius being a lap-cat - KN

As he settles with us, it becomes obvious that he is a stray – a cat who once knew a human home – rather than a feral – born wild and not comfortable with handling. However, we will probably only adopt him under the semi-feral principle of bonding with a prospective owner. Our experience has taught us that unless a semi-feral or very wary cat really bonds with a human, then moving from a place where it is comfortable to a new home is a stressful experience - which is why Darius was as as angry and aggressive as he was when he arrived.

MW

Most of the successful adoptions in this situation take place when a staff member or a volunteer takes the cat – sweet, shy Mischa bonded with med-staff Jess, and has settled well in his new home.  But Mischa saw Jess almost every day; for a  cat like Darius to have a relative stranger take him would be very difficult.

The look of love (or begging for goodies!) - KN

So for now, Darius is a happy cat, with places to explore and other cats with which to interact, and we’ll see if there is a volunteer or a regular visitor to whom he is drawn, and with whom he might find a home, and safety for the rest of his days.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Karen Nicholson, Michele Wright

It's A Ruff Life

This wonderful pair of eyes belongs to a cat who’s still not quite sure that he belongs here.

KN

When new cats come in, they are caged for a while so that first the staff, and then the Kitty Comforters, can have a chance to make contact with them. For the first while the cage bears a DO NOT ENTER – Med Staff Only warning, so that regular volunteers know that they do not need to clean or feed in a cage with an angry cat ready to lunge.  Once we’re more certain of a cat’s reaction, then they can be approached with gentleness – sometimes with a volunteer just sitting in the cage and talking, and then progressing to touch with a wand or a scratcher, and then with a hand.

KN

For a long time this was all we would see of Ruff, if he was not actually hiding behind his drape. Having a hiding place is important to a new and frightened cat – but gradually we try to wean them of the need to hide all the time, and help them to understand that humans are not there to hurt them.

A big floofy, more-grey-than-black cat - KN

Ruff came to us from a woman in Surrey who had been feeding ferals for 5 years.  She said "I always had a soft spot for him. He was my first feral. I came home from a trip to China in 2014 and saw this cat eating the fallen fruit from my plum tree and I thought, "that’s weird!" I started feeding him & giving him water in the back part of my yard & eventually called VOKRA to help trap him. Once trapped they said he was 7 years old, had been trapped in a horse farm not far from my house, fixed & released". She had to move, and knew that the necessary renovations would mean noise and disturbance; before she left, she wanted to know that the cats would be all right, and she contacted us.

Wild Ruff - WR

Ruff arrived at the Sanctuary early this year, along with his “buddy” Hamlet. In actual fact, there was not a great deal of buddying going on; the two did not get along, and Ruff - probably the older of the two at around 12 years old, usually got the short end of the stick. Often when cats come in together, we cage them together – this was not advisable this time, and the two of them were housed at opposite ends of the Double-Wide.

Hamlet - KN

When the med staff felt that both were ready for release, the cage doors were opened, and Hamlet made his way onto the back deck of the Double-Wide – the favoured space for many of the ferals. There’s enough open space, and cat-runs for wary ferals to stay out of reach. Ruff, in contrast, hunkered down, as if to say “You can’t make me move!”  An open cage is an irresistible draw to some cats, so he had to tolerate visitors, but they showed him no aggression, and he ignored them (as only a cat can!)

Eli comes visiting - KN

Humans, on the other hand, were The Enemy, and were greeted with aggressive lunging and spitting. It took our resident cat-whisperer to see past the facade to the pussycat behind the tiger. Working slowly and carefully, she first got him to accept petting (and belly-rubs) and then persuaded him to allow her to groom him.  The enormous cloud of floofy fur she got off him made us realise how appropriate his name was – most of his grey body-fur came out, and his magnificent black coat is now offset by his grey ruff encircling his neck.

Touch that belly, please.... - KN

Ruff has continued his lunge-and-spit greeting with strangers, but it’s noticeable that it’s only an initial warning, and that he doesn’t make contact.  Visitors who approach him gently are now able to reinforce his understanding that we don’t want to hurt him, and increasingly he is ready to relax and accept attention.

There is still some anxiety in his eyes, and too quick a move can produce another lunge-and-spit, but his body language is telling us that he knows he’s safe in his corner.  He’s happier to come down and use his litter-box when there’s nobody around, but he’s already using his floor-level bed rather than insisting on being up on the shelf, and we hope that he will start exploring soon. Probably, like Ringo, it’ll be late night or early morning, with few people around.  But there’s no hurry – he can take as long as it takes to know that he’s safe, and that a Ruff life at RAPS is not a bad thing.

Blog by Brigid Coult, with a lot of help from Karen Nicholson

Photos & video by Karen Nicholson;
one photo by Wendy Roberts