Another look at Pushkin

As far as I can tell, Pushkin was a stray or abandoned cat because she wasn't wary of people. I suspect she must have spent the first few years of her life somewhere else and then found herself left on campus. She quickly found a relatively safe place to stay, but winters were hard on Pushkin. So I brought her in from the cold last winter, January 2009, and let her stay in my temporary office. Since she and Elvis had been neighbors and got along fine, they just continued in my office getting along well. Winters are hard on the campus cats. Perhaps the biggest factor is securing territory for safe, dry and warm places to sleep, preferably ones close to where they get fed. So competition for space gets intense. Also, there is a lot less space for them to roam around once the snows fall. And the cats like to stay close to where they know they can get food so as not to get cut off from the supply. The abandoned cats, even if they are good fighters, seem to have a harder time establishing and keeping territory. So it is just as well Elvis and Pushkin left the outdoor cats and became indoor cats again. Pushkin moved on to a new family last March. I hope she is doing well. Her new family lives close to where Nana is, north of Fukui City, near the Kuzuryu River, as it flows north to Mikuni.

Pushkin is an extremely good-natured cat, and I think it shows when you look at her photos.