Graeme: The Leader of the Pack

We’ve always considered Graeme to be the leader of the second wave of feral cats who showed up here at Graeme Park back in August of 2011. He was the first one we saw, darting through the pouring rain on the day of our Yellow Fever presentation.

Over the next few weeks we started seeing the others, all of whom turned out to be females: presumably Graeme’s little harem. They were more than half-starved when they arrived and my thought has always been that they came from another cared-for colony, perhaps on the adjacent Willow Grove Naval Air Station, and when their caretaker, for reasons unknown, left them they got desperate enough to venture forth, led by Graeme to the greener pastures here at Graeme Park.

Now Graeme has taken on a new leadership role: representing feral cats across the nation as a featured cat in the 2013-2014 Alley Cat Allies Calendar. His picture will appear in the calendar along with a short profile of his life here at Graeme Park. Alley Cat Allies is an advocacy group for feral cats and feral cat caregivers, providing resources, promoting Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), and working with government officials and policy makers on humane practices for feral, or community, cats. The 15-month calendars are sent out to their donors in the fall.

Because of the rights agreement that went along with having his photo selected to appear in the calendar, I can't show you the actual picture that will appear, so I'll leave you with his "I'm too sexy for my stripes" pose. You might also notice the ear tip (point of his left ear has been trimmed off) in the first and last photos - this is the standard symbol that a cat is part of a managed colony and means that he's been neutered and vaccinated. The ear-tipping is done under anesthesia during the spay/neuter surgery. The other two photos were taken in his first few months with us, before he had his appointment with Forgotten Cats in Willow Grove, which offers spay/neuter surgeries and vaccinations for community cats.