Cali Feral Passed Away Today

I met the Feral Fam last November 25th. Mama Cat had them sitting under a fir tree up near the gravel road. Those little kittens grabbed my heartstrings right away. I remember going up to them with a couple of bowls of Buddy's food. I left the bowls and began walking away and those kittens devoured the food. After a few days and a trip to the store to get them wet food, they would come down into our yard to eat. The temps were getting colder and snow in the forecast. After searching The Google for warm alternatives for feral cats, I did the best I could and bought them a tent. I filled that tent with things to insulate from the cold and lots of towels and blankets. I put the tent under and back of the fir tree and hoped the Feral Fam would take advantage of the warmth. I called it the tent of meeting at first but then realized they used the tent during the day as the tent of napping. So the tent became the tent of napping. I brought out blankets to set their food on hoping to give their little paws some warmth from the cold, frigid temps. 

Last night, in the middle of the night, I thought about Roy, Buddy and me. Roy and Buddy sleeping soundly, me not so much. Buddy had a rough start to the night and couldn't settle down. So, of course at 3:00 am we get up to get "laced treats" which means chill pill or two broken open and put into the bag. Yes, that helped her settle. So Roy, who was a little congested so he was snoring a bit, Buddy making little sleep noises after getting bedtime treats and now with the colder temps, good ol whistle nose is back for me. I thought we have so much to be thankful for, this little noisy band of sleepers. And like I have for almost a year I asked the Lord to keep Cali and Riley safe. Even when Buddy and I came downstairs at 3:00 am I did the usual look see out the back windows to see the kiddos were out having a late night. All was quiet out in the backyard, not a creature was stirring, not even a possum.

This morning we had breakfast and began our day. Buddy had an appointment at the vet, so we needed to get the chill pill in her. We accomplished that with relative ease and with that task taken care of we continued about the morning. We left for the appointment, came home. Roy and I left to go eat Mexican food and came home. I had a few things that needed to get into the mail today, so as soon as the heater guy called and said he was on the way, I took the stuff bound for the post office and began that trek. Right as I got to a familiar crossroad near our home, I looked over and there on the side of the road, lying in the grass was a calico cat and I knew those markings so well...it was Cali, member of the Feral Fam. My heart sank, tears came immediately and I called Roy to tell him I saw Cali, dead on the side of the road. Business taken care of at the post office and then I made my way home knowing what I needed to do. Roy wanted me to wait to go get Cali until the heater guy left but I could not stand to think of a bird or an animal picking Cali apart on the side of the road. That cat deserved so much more than that. I grabbed an old towel, a garbage bag and a shovel, because I did not know if I would be able to pick her up to wrap her in the towel. Oh and a pair of garden gloves. I was able to pull over to a safe spot and hoped against hope there was still life in that cat, but I knew when I saw her the first time, there wasn't any life. She was lying there on her side, something had skinned away a portion of fur on her left leg. Her eyes were closed and a little blood had ran out of her mouth. From somewhere deep inside I found the courage and the strength to pick that little cat up so I could wrap her in a towel. Even with her being a feral cat and running through the red clay around here, she always kept her white fur on her legs so clean, almost brilliant. I brought her home and laid her in repose on the backstairs to the deck. That is where she and Riley loved to have their treats. As a kitten Cali spent a lot of time on the deck running and playing with Camo and MJ and sometimes even Mama Cat joined in. Riley came from the gravel road and at first balked at being near Cali...when she realized it was her mama, she ran to the front yard and went under the porch. I was crying and sitting vigil over this little cat I named Cali that brought me so much joy. I wanted to bawl, but when the heater guy is in the house....you sit outside in the cold and cry hot tears that change quickly into cool tears as they ran down my face.



Loved those kittens and even Mama Cat but the one that stole my heart was Cali. She was the runt, got picked on, left out, swatted the most by her mama, her sister Camo was mean to her but her brother MJ protected her. In the evenings she would chase that red laser light all over the deck and up to the rocks behind it as I stood inside directing the beam. Mama Cat or Camo could be sitting outside waiting for me in the mornings to bring out breakfast and I might not make a beeline out into the cold but if Cali looked at me....I was out the door to get that baby some food. In March, when Lisa P was here, we caught Cali and Big Sissy Daddy expressing their love under the fir tree....I remember shouting something like, "not on my watch!" and went outside and threw bad limes at BSD. Several months later Cali brought her three kittens to the deck, kind of letting me see them briefly. Cali lost two kittens from that litter and thus Riley has been by her side since then. Cali and Riley would play and chase one another, it was like Cali was getting to have fun like she should have had as a kitten. When I would come out to the yard, Cali would run up to me and get pretty close, first she would do a little hiss and I responded with Cali, come on, I have never hurt you and always treated you well. Then she would start meowing and talking to me. We got to the point where we would do the almost closed eyes to greet one another. That is a cat's way of declaring trust and love. Cali was a good mama. She had a second litter. She kept them in the olive bucket on the deck when they were tiny little ones, eyes not opened yet. She and Big Sissy Daddy had another litter and almost exact copies of the first litter. The little orange kitten passed away and she had two left. Our neighbors were able to get the kittens, to provide a safer environment for them and they are thriving. But that kind of set Cali in a whirl. She wasn't as friendly or would come as close as she used to but all I had to do was call Cali and Riley and they ran down to the backyard cause it was the come for supper call. We were out a lot these past few days and missed the regular feeding times, but I always fixed their supper and put it out for them to find. Only Cali wasn't hanging around here as much as she had always done. 

I knew that Cali ran this area. She crossed the road all the time to get over to the cow pasture across from us. My neighbor Josh said she brought her kittens down to his house while they were little. Mary Joyce saw Cali and fed her like we did but she said the road was going to be the death of Cali...she was so right. 

All this time we tried several times to trap the Feral Fam but they were too smart to fall for anything and we gave it a rest for a bit. Cali knew I stood outside with them after placing the bowls for their consumption so that she and Riley got first dibs. Camo never would eat  while I stood there. Camo is a bully and there is some kind of cat hierarchy. When Cali didn't have her kittens anymore, she lost first right to the deck and under the house....Camo came in with her kittens. Cali and Riley were back to the gravel road and sneaking under the fence to the yard next door. 



Monday night I had a dream that Cali came running to me and let me pick her up. I rubbed her head and held her for a while and then she was gone. I woke up. The next morning I told Roy I don't think Cali will be with us much longer, only I was thinking she would be moving on, finding a new place to hang out. I saw her yesterday morning, she looked tired. She was shaking a tad. This young adult cat, having two litters of kittens while she herself was a kitten showed on her, aging her. She looked weary as she watched to see if I would place the treats in the same place as usual. I walked away and turned around to watch she and Riley for a moment. I always loved the sound they made crunching those treats up.



I think the Feral Fam was a gift to me from the Lord. Their arrival here was about the same time I began to dissect and ponder life as the first anniversary of my father's death was a few short months away. It had been hard for me to really grasp how much my father had hated me and the amount of effort he put into that hate. He was a complicated, mean spirited, narcissist. He was cruel and had made a great effort to be cruel to me even in his death. Thankfully, my brother talked some sense into him. But as I digested my life and the goodness of God in all those horrible and hard chaotic days of long ago, there were those feral cats outside, surviving. God taught me so much by watching them and caring for them. They never lacked a meal, had two tents, numerous blankets, treats and toys. 

I never got to touch or pet Cali in life but I was honored to pet her and then wrap her in the white towel in death. With the afternoon going by and the need to get her buried, I took the shovel up to the gravel road and looked for the suitable burial spot. I began to put the shovel in the ground when my heel began to sink in a soft place and I knew it was where we would lay her. I dug deep and wide, there was a fountain overflowing but it was my tears. My neighbor Nancy who has rescued Cali's kittens and one of Camo's, and he only has three legs, came by on her ATV and she helped me finish out the hole. I went and got Cali. We took her out of the bag, covered her better with the towel and began covering her with that red clay dirt. Funny, we had to adjust the towel when we put her in cause those brilliant white back legs were uncovered....we kept them clean just like she would have. A heart shaped rock was waiting close by to mark the spot of her burial. I don't think I have ever loved an animal that wasn't mine as much as I loved that little runt, Cali. I know friends buried their wife and mother today. On Friday Peggy will see her mother buried and eulogized. I know a cat is just a cat and out here in the country, can be a dime a dozen. That little Calico Cali made me happy and soothed my anxious heart with her presence. I will miss Cali but I shall never forget her.





Cali Feral was just a little over a year old when she met her death the way she lived life, wild and free. She leaves behind her partner Big Sissy Daddy, her daughter Riley, and two rescued kittens from her second litter, Tux and Canvas. She also is survived by her sister Camo and a niece and two nephews. Mama Cat, Dead Beat Dad, two kittens from her first litter and her brother MJ proceeded her in death. Also left behind to grieve her passing, her human friend Nancy Mon. Cali brought joy everywhere she went except if you were a bird or a mole.