The episodes of The Young & The Feral track the daily dramas of The Family Cow and The Family Adolfo, the free-living cats of our block in Queens.

The accepted term for groups of feral (a.k.a. wild, undomesticated) cats is "colony".  I call them a family.  Having observed them for years, I can tell you these cats are not the chilly, distant creatures people think, competitive for resources and disinterested in socializing.  They are devoted, caring families who love their babies, share their wealth, and have an amazingly structured society.  And because the dramas we observe playing out between them are so complex and melodramatic, they often read like a soap opera.

Our feral cat "problem" started when Mrs. Lipkin's'* cats, who never got spayed or neutered, started spending time outside, fraternized with other cats who were unspayed and unneutered, and before you knew it, Bob's your uncle (or Cow's your father in our case - Cow was the Heavyweight Tom Cat of the World (avenue) fathering all the kittens for blocks around, for years, without challenge.  My aunt named him "Cow" because he was white with black cow spots.  He's Jack's grandfather, btw.  Jack looks just like his mother, Cowboy - aka The Captain, RIP - who looked just like her father, Cow.  Jack, as a matter of curiosity, is the only one of my cats that I know his lineage going back several generations.  I tell him all the time about his famous grandcat and all the times he walked in front of my car causing me to slam on the breaks and scream and nearly have an aneurism.  But I digress.):  KITTENS!  And cats and cats and kittens, all sitting on the back step with glistening, pleading eyes like those $2 velvet cat pictures from the 60's.  You expect a tear to fall out as the cat in front says, "please, miss, won't you share your obviously vast wealth and give us a crust of bread from your refrigerator?"

You can't say, "sorry, I don't have any cat food," because right on your foot is your own fat Caroline with tuna crumbs on her beard saying, "who's THAT?  What does he want?"

So you feed them.  Then they bring two friends, and next week those have two friends and before you know it, it's a Pantene commercial in your back yard.  (Without the perfumed hair.  And not MY backyard, to be accurate.... this is going on at my mother's house.  SHE'S the guilty one, I want to make that perfectly clear.  I had nothing to do with it.  I am NOT that crazy cat lady!)

Anyway, they're all just cats.  Until you get to know them.  Day after day, watching them, feeding them, seeing how they interact with each other, with you, how they take care of their babies, how they always leave a babysitter with the kids if the group take a walk.  You get to think of them as neighbors.  They become friends, and eventually you're talking about them as if they're people.  You meet your neighbor from across the street in the bakery and you say, "Hi Joann, did you see Sylvia today?"  She says, "Is that the lady in the pink house?"  Duh!  Joann!  "No! Sylvia is the long haired tabby from the back yard.  What's the matter with you!"

The idea to write it as a soap opera came from a crazy phone conversation with my mom, a long time fan of All My Children, who often forgot to let you know she was making a segue before changing the subject.  She was in the middle of telling me about this and that feral cat having a fight, this or that one pooping in the neighbor's tulips, etc., when she suddenly cried, "Omg!  I have to go.  Victor and Diego are having a viscous fight!"  She threw down the phone and didn't call me back for an hour.  When she finally called again, I said, "which cats are Victor and Diego?!"  When she recovered from an attack of hysterical laughing, she let me know Victor and Diego were characters on All My Children. 

Of course from that moment on, the two fighting ferals were called Victor and Diego.

Anyway, these dramas have been going on for years, so it could take some time to get current, but what we've got so far is at left in ascending order, most recent at the top.  Enjoy.  And see below bios on all the cats - JD

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*name changed to protect privacy

Current Members of Our Feral Family: 

THE FAMILY COW (Our Back Yard Crew):

RUBY, the current alpha female (a tortoise shell with white feet and one ruby streak on her nose).  (TNRed mid-2010)  Ruby is several years old now, and we refer to her as Grandma.  She has had several litters of kittens, and been through many things, including the losses of several children and grandchildren.

             Ruby's grandchildren (her daughter Opal's children), born Aug. 2009:

         PENNY - (a very pretty calico) (TNRed mid-2010)

CINDY - (a very beautiful calico), Ruby's other adult daughter, now 1st in line to Alpha Catship after Opal's passing.  She has a large black patch over her whole back that looks like a saddle. (TNRed mid-2009)

THE FAMILY ADOLFO (Aunt Betty's Porch Crew):

SNAKE - male tabby with very fine stripes and a very sour look on his face.  Adolfo's best friend and the only male cat allowed to come on his porch.  Snake also visits my yard. (TNRed mid-2008)

THE SOMETIMEY CREW:

TOM - a square-jawed, tabby & white male, possibly one of our babydaddys before his TNR.  We thought Tom was MIA, Spring 2010 and listed him on the former members page, but he turned up in early Winter of 2010, looking very healthy and clean.  We think he may be staying with a family part time.  (TNRed mid-2008)

BANGS, a large B&W male, with black hair in bangs over his eyes.  Unneutered and uncatchable!  The current babydaddy of most of the kittens in our area.

BLACK SHUCK (all-black male, terrible, beat-up looking cat, named after the legend of Black Shuck, the ghost dog of the British moors who's appearance signals impending doom) - Seen both in my yard, and on Aunt Betty's porch... if he can get away with it.  He's Adolfo's sworn enemy.  Aunt Betty  has to take food down to the driveway for him because if he comes up to the porch, it's a fight to the death between him and Adolfo.  (TNRed mid-2009 and there's a very funny story about it here.)

ADAM- A very pretty, very clean, very polite white cat with tabby patches.  Male (not yet TNRed) A newcomer that appeared first in Spring of 2010 and is seen only every 3rd day or so.  Working his way into the backyard crew.

PEARLS (female? all black with 5 dots of white across her collar).  A newcomer in early 2010.

SLUG - Male? Female?  Wierdest markings I've ever seen on a cat.  Beige color with long, brown horizontal streaks, just like a slug.   A real oddball.   Have only seen him or her 3-4 times.

THE ALAMO - Another fearsome looking, feral male cat that looks like he's been chewed up and spit out by a shark- all red tabby with a very large head.  The Alamo first appeared at the back door in winter 2009 looking absolutely awful.  He had a huge, open, raw wound on the back of his right ear that went halfway down his neck.  Probably from a fight.  We once caught him in a humane trap by accident.... we were trying to  catch baby Garnet because her leg was injured.  Instead, Alamo walked into the cage.  I tried to get a spur of the moment TNR spot for him, but there were no vacancies.  I had to let him go.  We were never able to get him in a cage again.  I doubt we ever will.

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