I know many of you are already familiar with Tucker's tale but for new folks
who'd like to know his story...

Our backyard seems to have the hobo equivalent of "good eatin'" here marked
somewhere on the Ponderosas -- this probably has to do with the fact that I
feed the birds, and, uh, also the little mice that come for the birdseed.
This situation set me up for summer of 2003 when 3 strays started hanging
out here -- a large orange unneutered male; a small black unneutered male;
and a sadly worn silver gray Persian type male.  They came to be known as
Tucker, Robin and Pirate, respectively.  (At this time, my in-house masters
were Midnight (former stray); Oreo (former stray); Omar (from Petsmart); and
Shetra (eldercat, long-ago stray, now RB).

Pirate wouldn't let me get near him till much, much later in the summer.
Robin let me pet him and was fairly friendly although skittish; and naiively
I thought petting Tucker would be as "easy," too.  This proved to be a very
erroneous assumption on my part; I found out the hard way that Tucker was
just plain scared and defensive all the way to the bone.  I was actively
leaning over to pet Tucker when Robin came up behind me and spooked Tucker;
I immediately received a deep bite on my right hand right near the knuckle
at the base of my thumb.  First, I cried because my feelings were so hurt;
then I cried because the bite hurt (!) and I knew I was in deep trouble and
had to go to urgent care.  To make a long story short, Tucker ended up in
quarantine at my vet's with the understanding from the Animal Control
officer that I could claim him as my cat once he was through the quarantine.
I ended up with several trips to urgent care that weekend and Augmentin plus
two hefty shots of Rocephin in the derrierre.

I visited Tucker everyday at the vet and talked to him; he was sooo scared.
I promised him I would not desert him because I knew his only chance was
with me if I could figure out how to work with him.  By this point it was
obvious that he was not just a stray but feral.  I had bought another cat
"playpen" (a 3 x 4 wire cage with little platforms) to put Tucker in --
let's just say I made more mistakes and gave Tucker catnip and managed to
get myself bit again!  I ended up crying in my doctor's office and she was a
kind person and gave me the antibiotics I needed (again with oral and shots)
without "remembering" to file a bite report (two strikes and I think animal
control would've put him down.).
I came and poured my heart out on this newsgroup and just despaired of what
to do.

In addition to all the moral support and encouragement I received from the
nice folk here I was so very lucky to have my post read by an online cat
rescuer who basically mentored me for months on her phone bill with positive
useful information on how to rehabilitate and work with a feral cat.  At the
same time that this was all going on with Tucker, I'd taken in Robin (who
adapted to our other cats within 2 weeks) and was trying to figure out what
to do about Pirate.Actions speak louder than words--if it weren't for this
cat rescue lady's very real willingness to commit to helping me see this
situation through, neither Tucker nor Pirate's story would've had a happy
ending.  With her expertise, patience (with my ignorance), and
behind-the-scenes positive recommendations my daughter and I were able to
bring Tucker along to where he is today.  Now as regular posters on this
group know, our five-kitty household is not the happy cozy household of
purrfectly attuned purrsonalities; however, we're doing okay because of all
I have learned.  When I do have questions about cat care, I call my friend
who helped me save these furballs.

And the side story about Pirate is that with this lady's continued help,
that fall of 2003,  I was able to capture Pirate and find a wonderful loving
home for him; this was harder than it might have been because Pirate turned
out to be FIV+, so I was looking for a home for a special needs cat.  This
cat rescuer helped me write the flyer that helped explain his plight and we
were very lucky because one of the rescue groups that I took that flyer to
remembered Pirate's story when she met a couple who were looking for another
FIV+  cat to adopt!

regards,
Christine
photo album link to kitties:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cfbureltoo/my_photos