This is about “The Duke of Orange”.

Duke is a wonderful, handsome, male alpha cat who is highly intelligent and the most elusive trap evader. I suspect he is about 6 years old or more, which is fairly old for an outdoors feral cat. I have never seen him hiss at any of the cats even once, and he has gently taken scraps of meat from my fingers. The only aggressiveness observed has been when he doesn’t want to share a dish of food with one of the kittens he will gently poke them. He always willingly shared a dish of food with Boots, his best buddy.

Duke and Boots, best buddies greet a turtle visiting their patio.

As of February 27, 2020, Duke is getting a bit older and is limping from his right rear leg. Otherwise, his appearance is quite healthy with a nice well-groomed mane and his weight is good. I haven’t observed any obvious injury but I can’t pick him up to inspect it closely. He’s also recently had a limp at one of his front legs that lasted a couple of days, so I’m suspecting possible arthritis or bone joint issues due to advancing age.

Duke is the only cat who is still not TNVR‘d. Fortunately, the 5 females in this community have already been spayed. I have two different plans to trap him soon! If I can’t catch him asleep in a cardboard house renovated specifically to trap him, I’ll be borrowing a drop trap from Gina.