Name: Pigpen, named for the Peanuts character who is always followed by his own little cloud of dust. Pigpen, as you can tell from her pictures, always looks dirty.
Sponsor: Yes, by the wonderful Duckierose.
Joined Colony: Pigpen's been around as long as I've been watching and taking notes on the colony.
Altered: Alas, no. During the great TNR-Adventure of 2008, Pigpen became my nemesis as she consistently investigated by avoided all the traps we set out-- both the usual kind triggered by an animal walking in, and drop traps, where cats can walk under what amounts to a box and have a stick pulled out from it. The only reason I can, with any certainty, call her a "she" is because calico markings are genetically sex-linked-- only female cats can have both orange and black spots (generally.) Calicos and tortoiseshells are almost always female.
(The picture below is one of my absolute favorites I've ever taken of the colony. And you wonder why I call her my nemesis?)
Distinguishing Characteristics: Pigpen is precisely the style of cat I think of when someone says calico. Technically a calico is any cat with orange, black and white spots, and Pigpen certainly exemplifies this style, being mostly white, with the other two colors as splotches. Also, as I mentioned above, she is almost always dirty looking. I don't know if she's actually dirtier than the other cats in the colony, or just appears this way because she's mostly white.
Most Likely to be Found: Miss Pigpen seems to very much enjoy hanging out underneath a set of bushes directly across the courtyard from my apartment. However, she also seems to enjoy a good laze in the sunlight, so you'll occasionally see her spread out on the rocks (and her coloring-- dirt included-- provides excellent camouflage for this) or sometimes just being a kitty-loaf right in the middle of the grass.
7 comments:
Hmmmm, she does look a tad dirty, doesn't she? Maybe she would be less of a nemesis if you called her,"MISS Piggy". :)
Awww I still have my pigpen sticker!
@WorldTravelings: Do you think I'd be better able to catch her if I called her Miss Piggy? :)
@DuckieRose: Yaay! :) When it's time for the next round of TNR, please send happy "Pigpen Go In the Box" vibes out this way... :)
I'm glad to see you're back! Ok, so I haven't checked in about a month, but I'll keep checking now to see how it's going with the new owners.
I love Miss Pigpen sticking her tongue out at you. Such a sweet looking kitty, but we all know looks can be misleading.
@Eve: It's sad that it takes another crisis to get me posting regularly (although in my defense I had started with the Meet Tuxie post before learning about the new threat...) But I'm back to posting every few days, it seems and I hope! Glad you're back to read!!
I love her, I called her Nelly, short for nervous Nelly. I have sad news about my beautiful skinny kitty. I came out one morning to find him dead in the yard. I knew he had been killed so the vet said to call the police. They were here in 15 mins and he said it was probably a coyote from the park, but after speaking with a neighbor, I think it was a dog as he saw one jumping the cement walls right about the time he would have been killed. I feel very guilty for his death as we kept him outside and I also decided to sleep in an extra hr that day and if I hadn't I would have seen the dog come in my yard and could have saved him. I miss him so much, he was a huge lover and was getting fatter by the day :(.
@AZMum: Well, damn. And other cursewords I don't feel comfortable saying/typing in public.
I'm angry at the dog, and the dog's owners, or the coyote, and at life. But you can't beat yourself up over the situation. Crap happens, and it doesn't apologize. And there's no way of knowing what-might-have-been.
You should feel good, though, about the care you gave him. He wouldn't have had all this time without you-- without you giving him food and love and insulin.
I'm going to post about this either today or tomorrow, just so y'know. It's been a bad week for kitties in general, and ours in particular.
:(
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