One winter day, our TNR Coordinator Barb Jones was trapping feral cats to make sure they got fixed and returned to their outside homes. Truly feral (and often domestic but terrified) cats will almost always run away from people. This time, they all scattered like grasshoppers except one of the catolescents, who stayed curled up in a flower pot!
Their Colony Manager told her why: the cat was completely deaf. Unable to get the audio cues about what to avoid, so would have not survived long outside. Of course she couldn’t leave him there, so she brought him in.
If anyone ever wonders how much of a feral cat’s behavior is learned and how much innate, Chowder can tell you.
Within moments of coming out of the carrier at his foster home, he was behaving just like any cat raised with gentle human socializing: purring, asking for pets and even rolling on his back for tummy rubs!
We knew he’d be good with cats, but weren’t sure about dogs. We carefully brought in a volunteer’s sweet dog to visit. Again, he didn’t have that learned fear taught by listening to his outside family, so he was only curious.
We sent him to be fostered at our partner Chuck & Don’s in Castle Rock, where he would meet lots of different people and dogs. Within days, he met his new Catmom, Allison, where it was love at first sight.
Even on the ride home, he was without fear!
Now he gets to be the love of her life, with all the snuggles and purrs that either of them would ever need!
You can keep up with Chowder (now named Gus) and his adventures, on his very own Instagram page at: https://www.instagram.com/deafgusgus/
