C is for Cookie

My wild child and one half of the Freaky Feline Tag Team. (You'll get the other one much later in the year!)

Cookie arrived on the scene about five years ago.  From inside my house, it sounded like a 30lb. monster was running across the roof, but when I went looking I found a skinny scrap of black & white cat peering down at me.  Not a kitten, definitely an adult, but a young one! It started with an open can of tuna, and over many months evolved into a tentative trust.  Supposedly it's not possible to socialize an adult feral but I wasn't willing to accept that. And it's a damn good thing.

We've come along way since then.  She's been fixed - that's what the little tip missing off one ear signifies.  It doesn't hurt her at all, and I think it gives her a bit of a rakish look.  She's been given the opportunity to live inside and rejected it.  Some critters are just happier when they can roam at will, and she doesn't really roam far anymore. Cookie has her own little house, a snug little wooden box, with her bed, food, & water.

She patrols the property regularly, and any visiting cats are sent away licking their wounds and with their tails between their legs.  Mess with Cookie and get your furry butt handed to you on a platter! (Okay, so she never really learned to play well with others.)  She's happiest on fair weather days, when her people come outside and spend time with her.  And if she feels she is not receiving enough attention, she is not above banging on the door or blockading the stairs to demand it.  Unfortunately, she also lies like a rug and can put on an Oscar-worthy performance so one never knows if she's just spent half an hour snuggling and purring with someone else!

Her psychic kitty powers are finely tuned to kitchen sounds, she can sense a can of tuna being opened from a mile away and always cleans her plate.  Which is perhaps why she has a bit more of a "womanly figure" than she used to. But she's still spry enough to terrorize lizards and chase after birdies, recently adding herself to the Audobon Society's Most Wanted list by presenting a little yellow feathered trophy. (Which was a nice change from burrito wrappers and other bits from the trash.) If no suitable prey happens along - she's willing to make do with a tennis ball, toy mousie, or the occasional leaf.  Cookie's story is far from over, she's still evolving & changing and still has much to learn. But as she continues to feel safe and secure she becomes more socialized and every day is a new adventure in her life!

One little knitting update - on Monday morning I finished my Binary Cable Hat for Hat Attack: 

And it went out in that day's mail to travel all the way to Cal in New Zealand. Hope she likes Fuschia!