The Story of Me and a Big Black Tomcat

In 2016 I started working at a local Animal Shelter as an Animal Care Worker - which meant mostly cleaning the pens, feeding and making sure that all the animals - which are predominantly cats - in our care were healthy and well.

It was there that I met a big black tom cat with the greenest, most innocent eyes …

He was a very troubled boy and would on a regular basis react aggressively towards other cats and people. He was not homeable, couldn’t be released to live as a resident at the shelter, but couldn’t stay penned up for the rest of his life either.

He would look at me through the mesh of his pen with these big, sad eyes - and I fell in love.

I had had the chance to observe his behavior on quite a few occasions and I had a theory. And the shelter was very grateful when I said I would be happy to put in extra time to work with him.

An initiative was born - and over the next 6 ½ years that developed into a full-blown scheme! I developed my own approach from scratch, and it proved to be very successful. I knew that I had found my mission in life, so as I was gaining practical and very hands-on experience working with more and more troubled cats I also started to study courses on animal welfare and specifically feline behavior.

I am in the process of applying to the Association of Pet Behavior Counselors (APBC) to become officially registered as a Clinical Animal Behaviorist, main focus cats. I have also asked the International Companion Animal Network (ICAN) to accept me as a member.

The big black tom cat with the bright green eyes made remarkable progress once he felt understood and encouraged and once he had allowed himself to trust me. When the time came that there was no excuse for him to not move on to his forever home I just could not let him go - our bond had become so strong!

He moved in with me and my family in October 2017 and has developed into an amazing cat companion with a very special trait indeed.

TBC ..