Long story...
We first noticed Trudy, a beautiful medium-length tortie, in the park about a year ago. She appeared to be young and slight, but nearly full-grown.
After some time she came to trust us and made a habit of rubbing up on us during the nightly feeding routine. A few of the other park ferals also let us pet or pick them up, so we weren't too concerned about Trudy's trust being a safety hazard for her. Our experience has been that a small percentage of the park ferals eventually grow to trust us enough that they let us pet them, but only us. We know these interactions are selfish of us, but have never seen any of the friendlier ferals put themselves in harmful proximity to other park patrons.
However, after a few months, we spotted Trudy nuzzling up to other park patrons. Normally, she stays with a colony of ferals that resides in an area of the park that is not usually open to the public. So, though we were concerned with her being too friendly, she mostly stayed away from contact with other humans.
Last week, we were notified that Trudy's normally isolated area of the park was going to be opened for some Halloween activities. This would put hundreds or thousands of people, mostly kids, much too close to our overly trusting Trudy.
We devised a plan by which we'd gather up Trudy the night before Halloween. We'd take her home until the Halloween activities had passed and then return her to the park. We even decided to use the opportunity to drop her off at our vet’s office for a quick checkup, tests, and shots.
Everything went exactly as planned. Trudy was none too happy about spending the night in our temporary pen, but it was dry and warm enough, and had food and water. Her Halloween day visit to the vet also went well. Her health checked out very well and all of her tests came back good.
The night after Halloween (Wednesday), we released Trudy back to the park in her normal feeding area. Typically, when we release a feral, they scamper out of the trap/carrier and off to a safe place. Trudy, however, though aggravated with our heavy handed treatment of her the past few days, calmly walked out of the opened carrier and followed us as we placed the food. We were pleased that she seemed to have re-acclimated herself so quickly.
Then, we were mildly amused as she continued to follow us to other feeding stations in the park's non-public areas. She'd followed us in the past, but not quite so far.
Our amusement turned to alarm when we progressed to other feeding stations in public areas of the park. Trudy had followed us. Understand that this is no small trek for her. We're driving a car from one edge of the park to an opposite side - maybe 1/8 of a mile. We look up, and there's Trudy in an area of the park that we've never before seen her. She must have run the entire way.
Kevin picked her up and we drive her back to her normal area. After a few failed attempts to leave her - she kept following us toward the park exit - we somehow convinced her not to follow us.
The next night (Thursday) of feeding, things seemed to have returned to normal. Trudy is with her normal colony and doesn't follow us about as she had the night before.
Last night (Friday) things went really wrong. We find Trudy with her colony, where she eats normally. She seems content to stay there as we leave for the other feeding stations. Finally, as we go to leave the last feeding station and exit the park, here comes Trudy running at full speed! We figure we'll just place her back as we did two nights before.
Kevin walks her all the way back to her feeding area. Kevin turns to walk back and Trudy, while following him, starts pawing at his ankles as if to play or be picked up - or both. This cycle is repeated two or three times as Kevin tries to escape the area without Trudy at his heels. She will not be ignored, or left behind.
So we didn't/couldn't!
I wasn't at all happy about bringing her home. The house is already too full of cats, and Sable and her kittens are still being fostered in the second bathroom. Trudy and Kevin win. Trudy, free-roaming across our dashboard, seemed happy with herself as we drove her the few blocks home.
She spent the night in our bedroom, segregated from most of the others so we could make all of the cat introductions in a somewhat controlled fashion. By this morning things seemed totally normal. After only a few hissing fits, most of cats seem hardly to notice the new addition. Trudy acts as though she's lived here forever. And, she's quite a good lap companion.
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