ECLECTIC VISIONS

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BONNIE, CLYDE & BUGSY

Bonnie, Clyde and Bugsy came to my house sometime late in 2018, because my records show that I had them spayed or neutered and inoculated shortly before Christmas in 2018. I think that they came from a house down the street from me and that they were born in the spring of 2018 because I had seen them there when they were little kittens. An older man lived there and fed many cats, but he did not keep them inside. I often saw cats running around there. As I said on my Kids homepage, the man died and I suspect that his daughter decided to not take care of them and she stopped feeding them. Obviously, they found a gullible source for food and a permanent home at my house.

When I started taking care of them, I was still living in my first house which was not secure, so there was no way that these new cats could be anything but feral. From the point that I started taking care of them until when I moved into my present house, I had to feed them outside which was a constant struggle because outdoor feeding of animals in my semi-rural area attracts raccoons. At the normal time that I would feed the cats I would see raccoons coming out of the forest to my house. In order to allow the cats a peaceful meal, I bought dog food and fed the raccoons dog food at the same time as I fed the cats.

Shortly after I moved into my present house, I did capture all three of them and they have lived in my house since then. Having lost some cats to other wild animals, I can now feel relaxed that the cats are safe even if I hear a coyote howling nearby. While the coyotes seldom came real close to my house, sometime they did, or my cats ventured into the forest where coyotes and raccoons presented a danger to them.

Even though they have been living in my house for quite a while, only one of them (Bonnie) has come to accept me. She likes to have her belly rubbed and to be petted, but the other two often run and hide when I come near them. Maybe time will resolve that problem.

So, how did they get their names? Well, Bonnie was my mother's name, but my cat Bonnie is not named after her. Since Bonnie and Clyde are both tuxedo cats and difficult to tell apart, I was looking for a name pair that sounded interesting. I thought of Hansel and Gretel, but did not really like it. Bugsy is a calico cat and has an orange marking on her forehead which reminded me of a carrot. So the carrot made me think of Bugs Bunny and then Bugs Bunny made me think of Bugsy and Bugsy made me think of Bugsy Malone which made me think of gangsters and Bonnie and Clyde. All that probably sounds a bit weird, but that is how they became Bonnie, Clyde and Bugsy.