I guess it's time that I accepted the fact that Gin kun is gone.
Gin came into my life in the spring of 2012. At that time I was living in a neighbourhood that had a lot of feral cats. I had started getting the tamer ones spayed and neutered. I didn't really know much about TNR at that point, but I realised that there were a lot of kittens being born and then disappearing so I knew something needed to be done.
I had managed to get the local tom cat neutered about a month before Gin kun showed up. Gin was very obviously male, battle scarred and scrawny. I have to admit my first thought was, "Oh great, another tom. Just when I'd fixed the last one."
A few months after I started feeding him he disappeared for a few days, then came back with his right ear torn practically half off. I'd been able to pet him a little before let, so I decided to risk picking him up and trying to get him into a carrier. Amazingly he let me do this without putting up a fight. I took him to the vet to get his ear cleaned and stitched and got him an antibiotic injection. This was the first of several trips to the vet. Once his ear had healed I took him back again to have his broken teeth removed, then finally got him neutered in 2013.
His son and daughter, Albert and Sophie, were two of the last kittens born into the colony.
I really wanted to make him into an indoor cat, but that was a long struggle. After several failed attempts I managed to get him to stay in over night during the winter. When we moved to a new house the following summer I was determined to bring him with us, along with as many of the other colony cats I could re-trap.
He settled into life in the house and enclosure really well. This is one of the first pictures I took of him in his new home.
Of course, having Albert and Sophie there probably made things a lot easier.
On July 2nd of this year, as I was coming home with an armload of groceries, Gin managed to dash out of the front door and ran off into the night. At first I wasn't too worried. He'd managed to get out before. Once he was gone for two weeks and a forest of this size must be quite a good place for a cat to be, particularly one that had taken care of himself for so long before finding a home.
I went out for long walks to look for him every day, cooked chicken with the kitchen windows open every night, convinced he would come home when he was ready to.
But the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months and there's been no sign of him. Maybe something happened to him out there in the woods. Maybe he wandered further than before and couldn't find his way back. Maybe he's found another home somewhere.
I guess I'll never know for sure.
Gin. Just a feral cat, battered and war torn,
To me you seemed the noblest creature ever to walk the Earth.
I miss your presence, hope our paths cross again one day.
In this life or the next.
Farewell my boy, wherever you are.
Gin came into my life in the spring of 2012. At that time I was living in a neighbourhood that had a lot of feral cats. I had started getting the tamer ones spayed and neutered. I didn't really know much about TNR at that point, but I realised that there were a lot of kittens being born and then disappearing so I knew something needed to be done.
I had managed to get the local tom cat neutered about a month before Gin kun showed up. Gin was very obviously male, battle scarred and scrawny. I have to admit my first thought was, "Oh great, another tom. Just when I'd fixed the last one."
A few months after I started feeding him he disappeared for a few days, then came back with his right ear torn practically half off. I'd been able to pet him a little before let, so I decided to risk picking him up and trying to get him into a carrier. Amazingly he let me do this without putting up a fight. I took him to the vet to get his ear cleaned and stitched and got him an antibiotic injection. This was the first of several trips to the vet. Once his ear had healed I took him back again to have his broken teeth removed, then finally got him neutered in 2013.
His son and daughter, Albert and Sophie, were two of the last kittens born into the colony.
I really wanted to make him into an indoor cat, but that was a long struggle. After several failed attempts I managed to get him to stay in over night during the winter. When we moved to a new house the following summer I was determined to bring him with us, along with as many of the other colony cats I could re-trap.
He settled into life in the house and enclosure really well. This is one of the first pictures I took of him in his new home.
Of course, having Albert and Sophie there probably made things a lot easier.
On July 2nd of this year, as I was coming home with an armload of groceries, Gin managed to dash out of the front door and ran off into the night. At first I wasn't too worried. He'd managed to get out before. Once he was gone for two weeks and a forest of this size must be quite a good place for a cat to be, particularly one that had taken care of himself for so long before finding a home.
I went out for long walks to look for him every day, cooked chicken with the kitchen windows open every night, convinced he would come home when he was ready to.
But the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months and there's been no sign of him. Maybe something happened to him out there in the woods. Maybe he wandered further than before and couldn't find his way back. Maybe he's found another home somewhere.
I guess I'll never know for sure.
Gin. Just a feral cat, battered and war torn,
To me you seemed the noblest creature ever to walk the Earth.
I miss your presence, hope our paths cross again one day.
In this life or the next.
Farewell my boy, wherever you are.