Meet My Ferals

I have been feeding feral cats in my backyard for a few years now and have met some interesting creatures to say the least.  When my 3 indoor cats were about 8 months old, their mother had another litter outside.  Four beautiful kittens, 2 gray, 2 black.  She may have been mean and difficult to deal with, but she had some pretty babies.  Fortunately, I was able to send the babies to a friend of mine who is a lot more experienced in dealing with kittens and they had a very happy, forever home with her.  However, before I sent them to her, they were about 4 weeks old and mama cat had brought them out for the first time for me to see.  They were crawling around quite unsteadily, but their eyes were open and they were very alert to the world around them.  I had another feral tom cat in my yard show up around that time.  He was a beautiful grayish/brown ringtail tabby.  He just showed up one day out of nowhere and as usual, I was wary of him because I didn't know his personality at all.  He soon proved to be a real pain around those kittens.  It's like he was obsessed with hurting them.  We have a large travel trailer in our yard and the kittens were under it crawling around on an old floor mat for a vehicle and he repeatedly went to them and cuffed them with his paw, sending them further under the trailer.  I got angry at him because they were so helpless and just learning to get on their feet and he wasn't helping matters.  I repeatedly shouted at him "You Asshole!" but that never seemed to deter him.  Go figure!
After the kittens and their mother were gone, this tabby stuck around.  So did the name.  Today, he is affectionately called "Asshole" and while he can still be aggressive at times, I've managed to tame him a bit and I can touch him, cuddle him once in awhile and he seems to really enjoy the attention.
It's been over 2 years since he showed up here and while he doesn't come around as often as he used to, I don't worry about him too much since he seems quite independent.  Here he is, showing off how pretty he is.

Asshole

He has some damage to his right eye.  It doesn't seem to bother him as much as it does me but probably because I don't know what it is.  There's a purplish mark over the iris and it's hard to tell if it's internal or on the surface of his eye.  He showed up a couple of days ago after being gone for a month and the eye was really watery and he was squinting a lot, but he wouldn't let me look any closer so there's not much I can do for him.  Since he's been gone awhile, it's almost like I have to re-tame him again because he's had very little, if any, human contact in his absence.
This brings me to the reason for his return.  I will now introduce you to Lois - my female tortoiseshell.  Lois just had a litter of kittens on March 20th.  Asshole showed up a few days later.  There's something about him and kittens, and I'm wary because I don't know if he will hurt them again like he did the last litter.
Lois showed up here just over a year ago and had a litter of kittens on March 10th.  Five beautiful babies, 3 black, one gray and cream and one orange/white striped tabby.  I named the 3 black ones Owen, Oscar and Otis.  Oscar was the first one to be tamed.  He was absolutely adorable.  He was all black except for some little white wisps coming out of his ears.  I wish I had a photo to show you but at the time I didn't think to get pictures.  One evening I was outside sitting on the ground near where the kittens were playing.  They were about 6 weeks old by then and Oscar came up to me and and I spoke softly to him and started scratching his chin and giving him some love and he just rolled over on his back and let me rub his tummy.  He purred and purred and I fell in love.  The others were a lot more skittish than he was, but probably because Lois moved them around so much and didn't let me handle them very much.  I don't know why Oscar was different but I bonded with him after that very quickly.
The gray and cream colored one was very skittish, I hardly interacted with her at all, but I did know she was female and so pretty.  I named her Opal because when the sun caught her fur, it changed colors constantly like the actual gem.  The little orange/white striped tabby became O-jay.  Not after OJ Simpson, but because it's short for "orange juice".  His fur was so bright orange that it reminded me of an orange so I dubbed him O-jay.  He was also very skittish for a very long time.  Unfortuately, Opal disappeared without a trace one day and I have no idea what happened to her.  I was saddened by this because she was so pretty and I was looking forward to finding her a forever home.  I was certain somebody would snatch up that beauty in a heartbeat.  This was only the beginning of a series of mishaps.
Sadly, a few weeks after I bonded with Oscar, I got a call from a family member one afternoon, that she had found a kitten lying on the road dead and told me to go check on the 5 in the yard to see who was missing.  She was certain it was one of them.  It turned out to be Oscar.  Somebody hit him with a vehicle and it was an ugly scene. He was still warm and we had just returned home from an errand about 15 minutes prior to this and he wasn't in the road then, so I knew it had just been a few minutes since his death.  My heart was broken for him and for me.  Ironically, Otis went missing the same day that Oscar was killed.  First Opal was gone, then Oscar was killed and now Otis was missing too.  I was devastated.  Lois seemed to understand that something was wrong too.  She ran around the yard calling to her babies and only 2 would come.
I still had Owen and O-jay.  Owen was much like Oscar in terms of affection and looks, but he was still Owen and the bond wasn't the same.  O-jay was terrified of me and it was a rare moment when I could touch him, let alone pick him up.  However, I didn't give up on him and would look for every opportunity to pet him and talk to him when I would feed the cats and today, he's my little buddy.  If he's not in the yard in the mornings, all I have to do is holler for him and he'll come running now.  It's so cute and such a sense of accomplishment, knowing he finally trusts me.
Here are some photos of Lois, Owen and O-jay as they look today.

Lois

Owen (big cat) & Rupert (kitten- will explain him later)

 Lois is a tortoiseshell as you can see.  She's quite affectionate but isn't crazy about being held.  I've managed to gain enough trust with her that I can pick her up on occasion, but not for long periods of time.  She's also has a nasty upper respiratory infection that doesn't seem to be treatable.  She wheezes terribly, especially when it's cold or when she's got a belly full of kittens.  I'm having a hard time deciding what to do with her because I really don't want to lose her but I fear that she will only get worse over time.

O-jay

Owen is a sweet little boy.  He's very protective of the kittens.  The one in the photo is his baby brother whom I named Rupert.  Unfortunately, Rupert passed away at the age of 7 weeks due to aspiration pneumonia.  All of his siblings died before him between 4 and 5 weeks of age.  I thought he was going to make it but he got too cold and his little body just couldn't handle it.  RIP little guy.  

Here is O-jay, my other sweet boy. Isn't he gorgeous?  His fur is much lighter now than when he was a newborn, but the name still works for him.  That beautiful tail got broken one time last summer and surprisingly healed very well and he has full use of it now without any issues.  He also had part of his right ear bitten off just after Christmas.  It healed very well but there is a definite chunk out of it now that will never grow back.  Doesn't seem to bother him however, and for that I'm grateful.

Black Butt

Last but not least is a tom I call Black Butt.  He's been hanging around for some time, though I can't pinpoint exactly when he showed up.  He's mean and untouchable.  He has some health issues, so I don't tend to get near him anyway. I believe he's the daddy to Owen, Otis and Oscar and probably the kittens from the last litter as well, at least all the black ones.

So, there you have been introduced to my feral cats.  While I'm not "in love" with them as I am with my indoor cats, I cannot turn my back on them either.  I am constantly checking on them, worrying about them and trying to earn or keep their trust as best I can. I can't help myself - I'm a cat lady :-)