Newt was a feral calico female cat born in 1998. She lived in a stone two story abandoned building behind my house. We named her Newt after the little girl in Aliens. This cat was tough, clever and sharp. She lived six years, which is double the life span for a feral cat. She figured out that the higher up off the ground she stayed, the safer she was. To get to her safe place, she would jump onto a dumpster, then up on a first story roof, up once again to the second story roof line. From there she would walk about fifty feet, then turn and walk straight down a ledge that was as wide as a stone on its' side. After about six feet, she would cross to the next roof line and walk into a rotted hole just under the eave of the top of the building. It was a great spot for her. No other cats seemed to know about it and dogs couldn't get to her. Newt would come to the house twice a day to eat, but we never really knew where she spent the rest of the day. Sometimes, in the winter nights, she would stay in the first cattery we built because it was warm.
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One spring we knew she was pregnant and we were pretty sure she had the babies in the abandoned building. I had to limit my search since the building was not safe to be in. It was officially condemed in 1966 after a tornado, but 40 years later had never been repaired. One evening after work we came home to find the building had collapsedWe didn't see Newt for almost three weeks. We were sure that she and the babies died. Then one Sunday afternoon, she came down the driveway from the alley. She was weaving and stumbling. Though we will never know the real story, we surmised that the babies were still alive and that she refused to leave them. It was obvious that she hadn't eaten or had much to drink in the time she was gone. Two weeks later she brought two kittens to the house. They were very cute!
We brought them in the house to socialize and litter box train them. We were able to find a good home for them. It took the rest of the summer to tame Newt enough to let us hold her. As soon as we could catch her, we had her spayed. For the next five years, within minutes of working outside in the yard, Newt would show up. She would stay with us as long as we were outside.
She loved getting attention, then she would tuck in some place where she could see us, but where we could not touch her. In the fall I started putting her food just inside the back door so she would get used to coming in the house. She would come in to eat and visit, then want back out. Her second winter she soon realized that sitting by the fireplace in a cuddler was much better than being outside. But at nightfall she wanted back out. We never could get her to stay inside with us at night. Then one summer evening in 2005 she didn't come home. She was the first animal that I lost to anything other than old age.
