Smokey’s Story
Facebook Messages.
Monica: Help, please!
Mark: What do you need, ma’am?
Monica: I have some cats that need to be caught and re-homed.
Mark: Call me at 270-***-****
And as they say, “the rest is history.” With that call, Dorothy and Mark are on their way to Meade County to check out the situation where a family just up and moved out. They left more than a dozen cats, like the neighbor who found them thought, trapped inside a double-wide trailer with no food or water. The lack of food or water was correct, so the neighbor who called Monica Webb put that out for cats as they found a way in and out through the laundry room using the dryer vent where the cover was missing. Mrs. Webb had contacted one team that caught the friendlier cats who took to human contact, but that left six they could not catch. That’s when the call came into Crazy Cat Sanctuary and Black Cat Rescue. With the word out about cats in trouble, Mark and Dorothy, AKA Daddy and Sister by the cats, jump into action. They get wet food, treats, water, the big transport cage, and the rescue traps into the van and roll to the address in Meade County they’ve been given. They meet with the neighbor who contacted Mrs. Webb and are taken up to the property where the mobile home is located. Day two of the catch, but day one for Daddy and Sister. After looking over the situation and talking to the cats, Daddy sets out a little food and some treats and sits down on the deck to talk to the nervous cats. As he calms them down, a couple come up to him and talk to him. They never get close enough for him to catch them, but he does get to scratch a couple of heads before they back off. But the leader, a big gray medium fur cat, just sits back and watches with a nervous eye, keeping a close watch on what’s happening.
That afternoon as the temperature rises, the rescue traps are set out on the steps to the deck with food in them. One has a can of Friskies, the other a can of tuna. Before they call it a day, they have four beauties in the travel cage and rescue traps, and head home to the sanctuary. Then there were two.
Then there were two??? That’s what they thought. They had the leader and one other catch to when they leave for the night. However, when they return the next day, they count one, two, and three. And that third one is BIG. Someone had dumped her overnight, but the leader did not run her off. He took her in. On the second day at the property, Mark and Dorothy start calling this big gray Tomcat Smokey because he looks like the color of beautiful smoke moving around. He wants to be friendly, however, he’s just too nervous to get close. He also stays away from the rescue traps. The other two cats are secure by midday, but he’s a tricky one. He triggers the doors on the live traps a couple of times, so they have to be reset. Daddy and sister have to get into his head and think more like a cat, so set out one unit with some salmon-flavored treats leading in the door and right to the bowl of real tuna inside at the trigger point. After a nerve-racking two more hours, Smokey finally takes the bait and is on his way to his new home. The leader of this pride joins back up with the other five and the new big girl.
Once home, he’s introduced to the other residents of the sanctuary from inside the travel cage, and after they get to relax for a few hours, the last three are let out to join the others in getting used to being back inside with other cats.
For a couple of days, they’re not allowed to go outside, so the seven new cats can get used to the pride, and their new surroundings. The humans refer to this as “Scent Training”. After a couple of days, everyone gets to go in and out again as they please. Three of the new kids decide they’re off to the feral colony back in the woods, but the others live the pampered life. Smokey, being the good leader, insists on overseeing all his colony he has left, so he spends time both at home and at the colony, making sure all his are doing well. He becomes what is called a “tame feral” or a feral who feels you are good enough to be worthy of his time and be part of his pride. We have two other tame ferals at the sanctuary: Ms. Grace, and her daughter, Ms. Anne.
Come to find out, he loves watching action movies with Daddy, especially John Wayne Movies. “McClintock” is one of his favorites. He sits on the cat tree or on top of Daddy’s workstation while they watch movies together, then he will either curl up and go to sleep or love on Daddy asking for another movie and about halfway through the second one he’ll go to sleep.
He also loves the camera and poses for Sister whenever she pulls it out. This is one of his favorite poses on the cat tree or looking down from the workstations. Sometimes you find him in one corner and King Jules Verne on the other corner watching over their combined pride. This last year, they ran the pride together, and whatever one or the other said became law. And who says, “cats are just dumb animals.” These kids are smarter and wiser than most humans. When the cats are outside, Smokey will strike some poses for her and just make himself look GOOD.
Update: Unfortunately, age catches up to all of us, and we just lost this gentle giant on December 11, 2018, when he went over the Rainbow Bridge. We’ll miss him, but we will forever love him in our hearts, and we will cherish these memories. Goodbye, John Smokey Wayne. Gone, but never forgotten our big boy. And you will always have a place in Daddy’s adventure stories.
