In August, 1999, I took over feeding a feral colony consisting of one "mama" cat and her one surviving kitten. This little guy was the survivor of a litter of three. He was about 3 or 4 months old, and our first spay/neuter clinic for ferals was coming up on September 25. I tried to trap him and his mother two days before the clinic. He went in the trap almost immediately. It was a miserable night—raining, with the wind gusting. To make matters worse for him, suddenly he was cornered, in a trap! He immediately began banging himself against the sides of the trap, in true feral fashion.
He was still active after I covered the trap with a towel. He was typically feral prior to the clinic—very quiet, ate little, and kept to himself when I would come near. After two nights in my guest bathroom, off to the clinic we went! He was number 5 to be fixed, and by the time the clinic was over, he was awake and alert, and on film for Channel 13!
I agreed to try and tame him, and paid for his Feline Leukemia and AIDS test at the clinic. Luckily he was negative! That afternoon after the clinic, I had him in my guest tub, with the trap covered. Throughout the day I would check on him, and every time, the towel was pulled back, and almost off of the trap! The first few times, I pulled the towel back over the trap, thinking to myself "always keep those ferals covered!" Well, it finally dawned on me that he had been pulling the towel back because he wanted to see outside the trap!!! What wonderful progress already!
At this point, he just had to have a name, and I was stumped. I went through the usual names for orange cats, but I was stuck on the "o" for "orange", and was thinking of "O. C." for "Orange Cat" when I realized that O. C. rhymes with Opie! And he was a little redheaded boy, too! I immediately began using his new name. Next, since the towel was only covering about ¼ of the trap, I sat and talked to him for about an hour, and even petted him once through the bars, and he was extremely responsive! By this time, it was 10:00 p.m., so we shut out the bathroom lights so Opie could get some rest (he'd had a big day)!
On Sunday morning, I checked on him. Today was decision day—it would be the release day or the beginning of the true taming. He was still very responsive to my sweet talk! Yeah! So after a few minutes, I began to pet him through the bars again. He enjoyed that a lot! So…on to the next step…coming out of the trap! I released the door, and he walked out very calmly, and was not intimidated in the least! Within the next hour, I had him on his back, in my arms! He was sooooo content to be there, purring like mad!
Right away we brought in a litter pan (he took to that with no problem), plus food and water! My husband and I began working with him for normal household sounds…flushing the toilet, running water (he was captivated, watching the water go down the drain), crinkly paper bags, squeaky shoes, everything I could think of. He adjusted so quickly it was amazing. And wow, did he play! I guess they really miss out on play when they are ferals, because it's all about survival out there. Eventually he "graduated" from the bathroom, and got to live in the guest bedroom. He was always good, and did not knock things off the dresser. What an amazing cat!!!
Opie's next big adventure was the local cat show where we (Space Cats Club/Feral Network) had a booth. He was scared most of the time, and cowered in his litter pan, but the highlight for all of us was the professional photographer who took the picture you see linked to this story. The photographer was Hammond Photography out of Merritt Island, Florida, and they donated the services to our group. As you can see, Opie's picture came out beautifully! He was tame only 3 weeks when the picture was made.
Opie then "graduated" to the rest of the house, and became familiar with our Black Lab and her gentle ways. He ventured outside a couple of times (gee, those horses were the biggest cats he'd ever seen, ha ha!), but he always stayed very close to the house, and wanted to come back in immediately. It was as if he had made a conscious decision based on what he knew-that living inside was easier and more fun than living outside!
In December, we got a call from a lady who was interested in a cat. She was responding to an ad for kittens, which our organization had placed in the paper. However, she wanted an older cat that could play safely with her Welsh Corgie. At the time, we only had one candidate—Opie! I explained to the lady that we currently had one 6-month old cat who was at the right age to play with her dog, and I asked if she was willing to give a recently tamed feral a try. She agreed, and I delivered Opie to her doorstep. We spent about an hour with him, in her guest bathroom, making sure he was adjusting (which he did, and right away, too!). She has since called and asked me to come by for a copy of his latest pictures!!! Opie and her dog play happily together, and it's a wonderful home-and right on the beach, literally!
What a lucky guy!