Tiger Boy and Maya Girl Collage

This a collage of Maya Girl that also includes Tiger Boy. The photo of MG on the left up against the glass shows just how much weight she lost when she was overwhelmed with grief for Tiger Boy. At that time, I was really worried about her. But I'm sure her time spent with Tiger Boy is now a really happy memory for her.

Maya Girl in her new home

I'm very happy to report that Maya Girl has transitioned very well into being a 'house cat'. This is very good for a cat who had to live outside on the university campus for the first 3.5 years of her life.

Maya Girl also taught me something about love and relationships. During the first year of her life she was nearly inseparable from her brother Tiger Boy. Actually, I think Maya Girl and Tiger Boy were born in separate litters to related mothers. She was physically behind Tiger Boy in her development. But they would always share sleeping quarters together, and Maya Girl always found a way to one of the food bowls with Tiger Boy in front of her.

When Tiger Boy was killed by a car out on a busy street near the east gate of campus, Maya Girl was forlorn for almost a month. I mean, beside herself with grief. She would go to the east gate every night and cry for hours, hoping to call Tiger Boy back. She stopped eating most of her food for three weeks and lost a lot of weight. I would go visit her everyday and talk to hear. I would hold her and pet her and tell her that we both missed Tiger Boy. She started eating again, and some students would come and visit her several times a week. Something she really enjoyed. She always liked being held and stroked.  

I like to think that Tiger Boy is in that part of heaven for cats, his soul at ease, looking down, knowing that his little adopted sister has found a new life. I'm sure Maya Girl still misses you Tiger Boy. I know I do.

Maya Girl has found a home.

Maya Girl had been living on the university campus for over 3 years. During her first year and a half, she and her brother, the loveable Tiger Boy, were inseparable. But then Tiger Boy got killed by a car. Maya Girl was near-inconsolable. She stopped eating and lost a lot of weight. Then she recovered some, seeking human company more than the company of the campus cats. She got along o.k. with Shaun when he visited, but relations with Gus and Sheba over the territory around the swimming pool were tense most of the time. Finally, they ran her out of the area and she was spending the winter mostly under the gym. But I caught her, put her in a quiet room for a week, and then she moved to her new family in Tsuruga City in southern Fukui Prefecture. Good-bye Maya Girl. We miss you here on campus but know that you have to be enjoying the comfort, warmth and safety of your new home.

Maya Girl had never lived in an apartment or house before, but as a kitten she had got quite used to people. So she has been able to adapt quite easily to living with a family in a house.

 

A collage of photos of Tiger Boy

I took these photos of Tiger Boy at play about a week before he was killed by a car (July 2008).

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.

Some more photos of Tiger Boy

I found a few more photos of Tiger Boy. Thanks go to Kem for her graphic commemorating Tiger Boy. His life was all too short but he was such a good friend. In the photo above (his constant companion, his sister, Maya Girl is on the left), you can really see Tiger Boy's lovely set of stripes. He was grey with black stripes, but he also had a lot of brown and even orange-brown on his chest--which is why I named him Tiger Boy.

Taken before Tiger Boy was a year old.

Taken about a month before he died. He was such a handsome cat!

Tiger Boy would--like most of the campus cats--rest in the shade of cars. He was wise to cars and trucks on campus, but most likely a very fast-moving car at night on the road north of campus confused him as to how fast it was approaching. He died about 200 yards away from where he was born and lived most of his short life. So wandering wasn't really the problem. Speeding drivers who also hurt children and elderly are.

Maya Girl and Tiger Boy are looking at some bugs.

Tiger Boy, 2007-8

We all miss you Tiger Boy. You were one of the loveliest cats I've ever known, both in appearance and in personality. I wish I could have protected you better. And as much as I miss you, you know Maya Girl misses you even more. That's how special you were.

Maya Girl

Maya Girl is one of the veterans of the Swimming Pool Gang. I've known her as long as I've known Pushkin, although I think Maya Girl is younger. I'm guessing she is just two years old.

Maya Girl had a very special relationship with another cat of the Swimming Pool Gang, Tiger Boy. Tiger Boy was like her 'big brother'. They grew up together and then spent so much time as young adult cats together. They would sleep 'back-to-back' and protect each other. Tiger Boy was a much bigger cat, and yet he would play gently with Maya Girl, letting her wrestle him to the ground. They really loved each other, as is apparent from the photograph where they are cuddling together while sitting on a motor scooter.

Unfortunately, we lost Tiger Boy last year in mid-July. He wandered off campus and was struck by a car or truck on the very busy 'Nishikanjosen' Road, which is just north of campus.

Tiger Boy had a very different personality than Maya Girl--he very quickly made friends with people and loved to play. He would jump very high chasing flying insects. If I made shadows on the wall at night using the light from a street lamp, he would jump very high trying to catch the shadow puppets (he really liked the one that looked like a bunny and the one that looked like a profile of Richard Nixon). I remember once he jumped so high he fell over backwards from a height that was as high as my head. I thought he might have hurt himself, but he shook it off and wanted to keep on playing. That was Tiger Boy--usually he just wanted to play, and got along with most of the other cats.

When Tiger Boy disappeared (I only found out 10 days later what had happened), both Maya Girl and Pushkin were distressed. They would go out every night, trying to call him out or back to the area. Then Maya Girl would go to the East Gate of campus and wait and wait, and cry and cry. She stopped eating for a week and lost weight for about a month. I was really afraid for her, but she recovered her spirits and is now a very healthy cat.

She lives in canoes and kayaks that are stored on the south wall of the gymnasium, near the outdoor swimming pool. She has made good friends with a couple of students who will go and spend their lunch time holding her and petting her. So right now, since there are no classes, Maya Girl is a bit lonely.




A recent photo of Maya Girl (2009) taken at night.




In summer 2008, after she lost Tiger Boy and stopped eating. She lost a lot of weight.




This is a snap of Tiger Boy and Maya Girl taking a nap together on a motor scooter.