Meet the New Neighbors

Paw Print

On Saturday morning, I discovered that we'd had a visitor on our deck during the night. The black bear left his muddy paw prints everywhere.

Black Bear Walking Down Road

I took this photo from my living room window two days ago. In order for the bear to appear more than just a speck, I had to crop the photo many times.

Without

"A diamond cannot be polished without friction,

nor an individual perfected without trials."

--Jeane Dixon

Rebel

Rebel and Locksley have a couple of major things in common: they found their way here and, apparently, each of them had been struck by a vehicle once upon a time. One of Rebel's legs is shorter, although he has compensated so well that it is not noticeable. I would venture to guess that Rebel's previous owner did not take him to the vet to take care of his broken femur, which I noticed only after Rebel started limping several months after his arrival. As for Locksley, since he was a feral cat, Mother Nature performed the doctoring on his thighbone. Locksley is handicapped only in the sense that he cannot jump as easily or as high as other cats, but he manages quite well. I just realized I need to add a third major thing that Rebel and Locksley have in common: resilience.

Locksley's Tattoo

That blue inside Locksley's ear is his N tattoo.

Locksley, Featured Cat of the Month

The feral cat I named Locksley (because I wanted a name to go with Zorro) came here via "the cats' underground railroad passageway." If memory serves me correctly, I have already posted about that. Anyway, I had his ear tattooed instead of clipped, so that he could be recognized as a neutered feral cat. Little did I know at the time that Locksley would choose to become domesticated after he recovered indoors from his fan belt injury. The truth is that Locksley has no desire whatsoever to set his paws outdoors again, since he is very happy living inside a house, a warm home, where he is fed well (perhaps too well, since he could stand to lose a pound or so) and has plenty of companionship. It is probably better for me also that Locksley abandoned the feral life because I cannot afford expensive veterinary bills--and Locksley seems to have been quite accident-prone outdoors.

Locksley quickly went from appearing shy around the other cats to being bold and sassy--whatever it took for him to gain acceptance. I must say, watching Locksley's quick transformation into a lovable rascal was quite entertaining.