Neil

Neil is one lucky, blessed cat. Homeless for months on the streets in West Virginia, he wound up in a loving home in Wisconsin, and then in California, thanks to the internet.

I first saw Cooney, later to be named Neil, then Niello, in the beginning of April 2003. I was working on befriending a homeless white cat, later named Penelope, whom I knew had recently had kittens. I had left a bowl of food for her towards the back of my yard, looked over there one early evening, and thought a raccoon was eating the food. But then when the creature looked up, I saw that it was a cat, a Maine Coonish kind of cat. He darted off when he saw me, but I did get sightings of him from time to time in my yard. He always ran off before I could get close.

One night at the beginning of May, at around 3:00 A.M. , I awoke to loud caterwauling in my yard. There was poor Penelope trying to get to my feeding station, but surrounded by three toms, one of which was Cooney. Penelope was already in heat again. Cooney did not run off this time when I came close, which surprised me. I suppose a cat in heat overrode his fear of being near a human, which also clued me in that he was still intact and therefore, more likely than not, no one’s pet. He seemed to be about 8 months or so old at that time.

Cooney really wanted to get at Penelope but either Bruce, one of the other toms I had already befriended, or I would shoo him from her. Being a smart cat, Cooney saw that Penelope and Bruce, were both my “friends”, since they rubbed on me and accepted petting. So, he decided to join the crowd and started rubbing on me also! I was rather shocked. I suppose he thought that would get him the “in” he needed to get to Penelope. He let me pet him and scratch his head. If it weren’t 3:00 in the morning, with my having to go to work in a few hours, I would have simply put Cooney in a carrier and taken him to the vet to be neutered in the morning. But, things were as they were, so I didn’t. Bruce managed to keep Cooney at bay simply by wailing at him after Penelope finished eating so she could make her escape back to her kittens unmolested.

My months after that were filled with finally taking in Bruce, Penelope and her four kittens, socializing the kittens, then finding homes for them, as well as other things in life, so I didn’t see much of Cooney. After some time, I started seeing more of him at the feeding station (I never forget to leave food for him). He would let me pet his head while he ate, his now big unneutered adult male head, but he was not too relaxed about it and never as friendly as he was on the “night of passion”. One mid-October night, in a newly social move, he sat next to me on top of the food shelter, and let me pet him for a while. After he had enough, started huffing and smacked me. He trotted off towards the nearby church parking lot, and I heard a cat scream. I though something happened to Cooney, but it was little lost, very tame, Persian Marty, who I took in then and there, his being in no shape to make it on the streets. At the time, I thought Cooney was harassing Marty, and maybe he was, but when I caught up to them, Cooney was sitting back calmly a few feet from where Marty was cowering, making me think that perhaps Cooney had corralled Marty so Marty could be found and helped. That seems highly unlikely, but after how things unfolded, I do wonder.

After that, Cooney then took to feeding from the bowl of food I put out on the front porch for yet another cat, rather than feeding from his usual bowl in the back yard. With the front porch being more visible from the windows, I got to see more of Cooney, which now seems to have been his plan. I would go out when he was there, he would no longer run away, and even rubbed on me a few times. So began the befriending in earnest, along with my husband’s earnest pleas to not take in any more cats. But on the freezing cold night of December 20^th, I heard cat wailing on the porch, and saw Cooney making a stand against another cat, who ran off when I opened the door. It was 16 degrees with snow on the ground, and uncharacteristically, Cooney wouldn’t leave my side at all, but began rubbing more and more on me almost as if he were saying he was now ready to be claimed. So I went in the house, got a carrier, put Cooney in (with no fight from Cooney) and set him in the bathroom, which was when he became Neil.

On the left is Neil during his first hour in the house; the picture that melted some hearts and resulted in his adoption. Behaving in a such an affectionate, gentle manner got Neil bedroom rights that very first night, and he sure did get quickly used to enjoying stretching out on a bed. Getting used to a litter box took longer. About 24 hours. That’s how long he held it all in, before finally deciding to use the box. I don’t think he knew what a litter box was, or it if he did, it was such a distant memory for him. But, he did not go on the floor, nor did he spray, which was somewhat remarkable considering there were other cats in the house, and he was an intact tom. He seemed the perfect pet cat, so very affectionate, (except for that biting episode when I raised his sore lip to have a look at why it may be sore), and was more than happy to stay in the house. But sadly, we couldn’t keep him, having seven other cats and no more room (or money to care for more). He needed a home.

Which is where the internet and the cat group I belong to comes in. I posted his picture, and to my amazement, a member from far away Wisconsin seriously wanted to adopt him! I was going out of town for several days, so Neil was boarded at the vets, during which time he was neutered, and his tapeworms treated. It turns out his lip hurt as he had chipped a fang somehow. The wonderful Maine Coon Rescue group was willing to help arrange transport, as were some members of my internet cat group, but it worked out that my husband and I drove Neil, now Niello, to Indianapolis to meet his new caretakers. Niello, the wonder cat, accepted the six hour car trip as if he routinely took rides in cars! And he even used the too small travel litter box. He made the transition to the waiting arms of his new “mother” with his seemingly typical, yet still surprising, calmness, and went off to his new home in Wisconsin .

After a few months, though Neil and one of his housemate cats were having a lot of problems getting along despite several things being tried to help the situation. Fortunately, the visiting daughter of his caretaker fell in love with Neil and it was decided he would go live with her, so Neil traveled yet again- all the way to California.

It seems so strange that a street tom who tried to avoid being handled for so long and appeared to be semi-feral at best would wind up being such a very affectionate lap cat. He could have come into the house months sooner, but only he knows why the time he chose was the right time. (I still think it was to save that lost, helpless Persian cat.) I’m so glad I never forget about Cooney, still out there, homeless. There are other “Cooney Neil Niello’s” out there too, just needing the “right time” to reveal their “perfect pet” selves. People just have to look and see.

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