Rufus’ Story

Reposted with permission from Kendra Pople-Easton. You might have seen a picture of this handsome guy. He’s SNKI’s signature cat Rufus. This is his story.

Our Rufus

We know not from where he came, or where he had been, or how long he had been out on his own. We only know how deeply, one beautiful kitty touched so many lives in such a short time.

My name is Kendra. I am a colony caretaker and on the Board of Directors at Spay Neuter Kingston Initiative (SNKI). My daily routine consists of delivering food and water to two feral cat colonies within the Kingston area. I am proud to say that I have never missed a day due to weather conditions….the kitties hunger doesn’t go away – so I must deliver their daily meal. I must acknowledge the ladies who help feed when I cannot (Tarley, Sarah, Cathy and Romana). In addition to feeding them, my job is to humanely trap when an appointment has been made at one of our participating Veterinary Hospitals. A trap is set with some tuna or salmon to entice them. Then I wait. On April 14, 2014 – I managed to trap a handsome orange and white kitty. I soon came to realize that I had never seen this boy before at my colony. He had obviously been dumped and managed to find his way to my colony where there is food and shelter. After delivering him to the Vet, we got a better look at our boy who I named ‘Rufus’. He was battered, beaten and in pretty bad shape (but so handsome, none the less). Rufus was neutered and vaccinated and received much deserved TLC to heal his wounds.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

His picture was posted on our website, and people followed our updated posts of our boy. After his initial examination, it was noted that he had many missing teeth and Rufus was FIV positive (feline aids). With that said – we knew Rufus could not be put back outside, and it was going to be difficult to find him a forever home.