About 6 or so months ago, we received an older tomcat from another rescue group. They had no room for him and deemed him unadoptable for a multitude of reasons (especially his high feral state). When we took him in for the neuter, we had a brilliant (or so I thought) idea of having the vet put a calming collar on him to help facilitate his socialization process. He would be put alone in one of our enclosures and we would work closely with him due to his health issues (he was going blind).

As I was carrying him from the car to the enclosure (after his neuter) the handle broke and he escaped! He scrambled under the house and I rarely caught sight of him. I named him Magoo and have been trying so hard to get close to him, not only because his vision is limited but that collar- it wasn’t a breakaway. I was afraid it was going to become embedded.

This morning, I went outside early to feed and Magoo was waiting for me. I have been slowly sneaking contact with him in the early morning feeds with choice food to distract him and while he is eating, attempting to pet him. It’s taken a bit of time, but finally this morning, I was able to slip bandage scissors under that blasted collar and get it off him! He has made pals with Mk and I sense that MK understands his limitations and has become his eyes. It is always amazing for us to watch the transformations of these so-called feral cats- how they adapt to their situation and try to get along within the clowder. Magoo is an old boy, and we have no intention of caging him up and making him miserable. He knows the lay of the land, he knows when the food is going to arrive and now, much to my delight , he is first in line with MK playing the role of his seeing-eye cat!

Our food is our main concern now. This week’s donation consisted of two small bags of dry food and one 12 pack of canned. We are going to have to become quite creative in order to keep food in those trays outside. It’s a challenge, guess we will see what happens.