Mookie arrived on August 17, 2020, a year later than all the others. He is not part of the immediate family of feral kitties here. He was born just a couple of neighborhoods away so they might be cousins.

As of August 30th, he is in a large cage adjusting to the environment, all the other cats, and to have some socialization with the humans. In the cage, he quickly trained himself to use the kitty litter. The cage has also made it easier to pet him, which he is enjoying, feed him treats out of my hands, and get him to not be afraid of me. I sit with him for hours per day.

The current plan is to release him from the cage on Friday September 4th and hope the others adopt him into the feral family.

Soon, there may be a video posted of the release! It should be very interesting. I am betting he will run through the Feral Funhouse onto the patio, passing the other kitties, and dash into the woods, hopefully returning within a few hours or the next day. There is a slight possibility he’ll stick around on the patio because the kitties will all be dining on fish. Yummy!

Mookie is very grateful to many kind folks who have cared.

Thanks to Mara and her daughter, who have been so kind to Mookie / Amber / Andy when he lived in their yard for a couple of months and made sure he would have a caregiver when they move out of the neighborhood to their new home in a month or two. Layla, their young, handsome all-black German Shepard, and their kitty cat both love “Amber”, who was later discovered by the doctors to be a boy kitty. Mara renamed him Andy, and I renamed him Mookie.

Thanks to Gina from Safe Haven For Cats for helpful info and getting everyone in touch with each other to make all of this possible. Thanks to Operation Catnip and Safe Haven for the doctors visit. See Resources.

Thanks to Gail from Raleigh who trapped him, brought him to the doctor, housed him in her bathroom while convalescing, talked me into taking Mookie into the family by putting together the plan to minimize his desire to cross a busy street to return to his familiar hunting grounds, get him comfy with his new surroundings, delivered and set up the large cage, equipment, supplies, food and yummy treats.

Gail, like Gina, is doing so much heroic work for the survival and care of feral cats. What they do is simply amazing, but there is nothing simple about it – it is a lot of work, knowledge, and most of all: care.