Bigwig ? - 2008

Bigwig was the patriarch of the campus cats. He, and a black-and-white rival tom named Sylvester, most likely fathered most of the cats now living on campus (except for the ones people kept as pets and dumped here in the past 3 years). Bigwig was fully feral, but he was a very friendly cat. He didn't like being petted or touched much, but he would follow me around on campus and come running to me when he saw me. He had to be the oldest cat on campus. I had hoped that by getting him fixed we could extend his life (really, all that fighting and roaming to breed were taking their toll). But he seemed to get weaker and weaker last fall, until he disappeared. I last saw him in front of the College of Education building number 1, where he appeared to be thin but otherwise all right--and he ate all the food I gave him then. But I never saw him after that, and it looks like he passed away during the winter.

Winter here is rather harsh for the campus cats because it is rather long and cold and wet, and there is a shortage of shelter for them. It might be easier on them if it were a little colder, but instead of snow, we usually get ice-cold rain. More than food everyday, what cats need in the winter is a safe and dry place to sleep. I have tried to help them by building 'neko-goya'--cat shelter boxes (which I will show in a future post).

By the end of his life, Bigwig had at least two families going. He had fathered cats on campus. I think he was, for example, the father of Tiger Boy. And I believe he was also the father of Shaun (they had very friendly interactions). But he also fathered a family just north of campus, around the university tennis court area (near where I live). He was a very smart cat indeed, as he had mastered how to cross the very busy circumnavigational road to the north of campus. He would come over to campus to get fed, but he would regularly go back to visit his family (which will be featured here as the 'Tennis Court Attachment'). When I first got to know him, I thought he was two different cats--the older tom I saw near my apartment and the older tom on campus near where Orange Blossom, Caramel and Shaun hang out. Sometimes he would beat me home!

He was, believe it or not, a very devoted father. He would go back and spend time with his beautiful little son, Tiger Baby (you will see him in a future post as well). They would eat together. He would stand back in a very protective stance and watch while Tiger Baby ate.