As you know, every cat pride has a king or leader. He is the head of the hierarchy. Everyone else ranks beneath him, except for the Queen of the pride. Normally, the king is the largest and strongest cat in the pride. He is always being challenged by younger males. This, though, is not the case at the Sanctuary. Our pride’s king or leader is one of the smallest cats and for sure the smallest male. Let me introduce you to one black and white Tuxedo cat named Jules Verne.
This little Tuxedo started life out on the rough side. We have no idea how he got under there. We also don’t know where his mother was. He started under a wooden shed next door to the Sanctuary. Several of the current residents at the Sanctuary started acting strangely. They walked back and forth inside like they knew something wasn’t right. This got the attention of Sister and Dad. Soon, the humans were checking around inside, then moved outside to the front yard. All of a sudden, Sister thought she heard some meowing like a kitten. Still, it wasn’t coming from under the front porch where the original tame feral had her kids. It was off to the left of where the humans stood. We started moving slowly around. Then we narrowed down the area where the sound was coming from. We followed it over to a shed next door. What did we find when we got there? A little, tiny, black and white kitten who was very scared and looked like it was very hungry. To this little kitten, a whole new life was about to start.
Now to coax the little one out from under this shed. Sister and Dad can’t get close enough to pick up the little bundle of fur. They can tell it wants to try to trust them. Sister runs to get wet food in hopes this will encourage it out. This is going on, some other cats move in to check out the new arrival in their area. This includes our tame feral, Ms. Callie. The food smell catches its nose, and it comes out a little farther. After it gets a lick or two, Sister and Dad take turns moving the can. They talk to the little kitten. It finally gets to the front yard of the Sanctuary, and Ms. Callie starts nosing it and purring at it. This kid is still young enough that it needs a mother for milk, so Ms. Callie takes this little kitten under her wing and raises it as her own, along with other kittens. This is why she became known as “Mother of the Pride.” But that’s another story.
Not long after this little kitten grew, it let the world know it was a young man. It also announced to the world that it was special. Ms. Callie raised this kid and made sure he knew how to hunt, love, and lead. With that training, you can see he was going to grow into something special. After Ms. Callie got finished with him, Ms. Tituba, the Queen of the pride, took over with his training. He is being groomed for something special. You tell because Tituba and Madeline did not just take anyone under their wing for training. Yet, Tituba did take this young cat. As he grew, he teamed up with Sister. Sister is a cat whisperer, and she helped him select his name. After much debate, he decided he wanted a strong author name and finally selected one. His new Furever name became Jules Verne, and with that, he started letting his true colors and talent shine through.
About 6 to 8 months later Tituba introduced him to the pride by his cat name. That is a name that only they know. She introduced him as the new king of the pride. Because she introduced him, he has been at the top of the ladder since then. Yes, a couple of bigger cats, Buck Rogers and Smokey, challenged him. They finally decided to work with him rather than fight him. Buck now works directly with the feral colony in the woods. Smokey manages tasks on both sides of the colony.
Jules Verne is the smallest Tuxedo. Yet, he leads a cat pride today of thirty-nine permanent residents. There is also a varying number of others who come in and go out to furever homes. He now has Smokey co-ruling at his side and Buck Rogers overseeing the feral. This guy even has a hand-picked security team. Ginger Tom oversees the security team. Hunting trainers are Grace Livingston Hill and Anne Shirley. But even the king has to answer to a Queen, and her name is Donna Noble. They both still answer to Ms. Tituba as Supreme Commander of the Pride. One of these days, she will turn that power over to someone, but we still have to wait and see.
