A better look at Gwen

Gwen is Ragi's daughter and the last cat to be born on campus. Like her mother she is a beautiful mike-neko (calico). The sentry who was here for a year because of all the construction traffic fed her for a year and then decided to adopt her since he liked her so much. She is very shy and a true feral cat, but she trusts him and can adapt to being a housecat. Good luck Gwen, the Dining Hall Troop members miss you.

Gwen waits for dinner

And she has that look on her face like..."Well, it took you long enough!"

Another look at Gwen

She could pass for a short-haired near-twin of Gracie. Both were born around the same time, but I think Gracie was born a bit later. Gwen is the daughter of Ragi. We never did figure out where Gracie appeared from. Someday I will get a clear close-up of Gwen in daylight. This one is in daylight but I couldn't get very close. By the time I zoomed, she had fled. She has the really pretty face of her mother, Ragi but also looks a bit like her aunt, Bootsie.

Gwen by the east gate of campus

Gwen is the last-born daughter of Ragi. She is really the youngest member of the original Dining Hall Troop, along with Gracie, another calico (although their relation to each other isn't clear to me).

She spent her first summer, fall and winter under the handicapped access ramp of the library, However, once the library was reconstructed, that space was lost to her. So she moved over to the far north-west end of campus. Poor Gwen, construction keeps disrupting her living space, since now just about that entire quarter of campus has undergone or is still undergoing reconstruction. It looks to be finished soon. She has survived in some shelters I put into a bicycle storage area just north of all the construction, and a kind gate guard has taken to feeding her everyday (I cover the duty on holidays).

Gwen is very shy. I keep thinking if I can coax her into the center of campus, she will learn to be friendlier because she will see how acquainted with humans her mother has become (I can now pet Ragi when it is feeding time). Perhaps I can do that this spring or summer.

Gwen is probably the most beautiful cat on campus. She has the really round, friendly-looking face of her mother (Ragi) and her Aunt Bootsie (who lives just due north, over by the tennis courts). Like her mother, she is a calico, but her calico coloring includes patches of striped grey.

I will try to get better photos of Gwen once the weather gets better. Right now she is a mostly nighttime cat, except when she comes out to get fed by the gate guard.

Ragi and her daughter Gwen

Ragi is the matriarch of the Dining Hall Troop. She is a lovely 'mikeneko', classic calico cat. She is not fully used to people--I saw a student chase her the other day, the guy was just goofing around, but such behaviour from people isn't really going to make Ragi trust people very much. She lets me pet her before and during feeding, so actually she is rather friendly for a fully feral cat. She was born on the campus, grew up here and will most likely die here. If I had a large house in the country, I would not hesitate to adopt a cat like Ragi. She would just need her space and to be allowed to come and go in the surroundings.

Last year, her last born litter of three had one survivor. I called her Gracie then, but her identity got confused with another lovely little calico kitten, also born last year. So that 'changeling' stayed 'Gracie', while the original Gracie is now called Gwen. Gwen is a short-haired calico, and her dark color is actually a striped grey, which is truly lovely. Gracie (the changeling) is also colored like this, but her fur is rather long and she is a smaller cat than Gwen. Gracie has moved over to the Swimming Pool Gang, and lives next to Elvis, the alpha male of that location. Gwen has moved to the edge of the Dining Hall Troop. She lives behind or amongst some houses (houses in town in Japan are usually put very close together, creating spaces that cats can hide in), and she visits me for feeding at a bicycle stand near the north walk-in gate of campus, right behind the number one building of the College of Education (where my new office is). Whereas Gracie is rather used to people--once you feed her you can pick her up and pet her, and she has lived in my office for a couple weeks to get over a bad cold--Gwen is like her mother, Ragi, very shy, although used enough to people to let them get close to her when feeding.




Ragi, mother of Gwen, Orange Blossom, and Caramel. Aunt to Shaun and Gracie.





This was a photo taken last year in July, of Gwen (front) and her mother Ragi (behind).