The bigger they are, the harder they fall
"Bad boyz" melt big time, graduate and go home
Carrie Faulkner “got sucked in” to the world of The Great Kitty Rescue when she adopted Yin in February at an adoption event.
“I wanted to do something to help the rest of the Pahrump kitties who were not adopted yet and in the yurts at Rescue Village at Best Friends,” she said. Boy is she ever helping; taking home two very big, and formerly very gnarly, long-haired cats named Fonzie and Curtis…they’re mama’s boys now.
“So I came up over Memorial Day weekend to volunteer,” Carrie remembered.
That’s when she met a very formidable — and actually very frightened — Fonzie who had just enrolled in Miss Sherry’s Finishing School for Felines.
Fonzie also has the distinction of being one of the cats named in the pending criminal neglect case
FLOCK.
“When I would walk by him he would hiss, spit, lunge and he never calmed down. I could get the other new cats in the school to calm down when I worked with them, but Fonzie never did.
“He was clearly the most frightened and he tugged at my heart. I promised him that I was coming back over Labor Day weekend and that he was coming home with me and I would give him the best of everything I could.”
“Corinne and Bob Mitchell were able to volunteer on a more frequent basis and they were so wonderful, giving me daily updates on Fonzie’s progress. (Corinne blogs about their experiences
The Great Kitty Rescue Cats at Finishing School).
“And then CC (who worked this summer at the yurts with her mother, Feline Finishing School headmistress Terri Gonzales). And I heard she was the one who really got Fonzie to melt.
And in the meantime, there was Curtis. The very big and openly aggressive cat who came into finishing school at the same time his buddy Fonzie did. In fact, before they entered the school Curtis was Fonzie’s protector cat, keeping “evil humans” away from his buddy.
Terri, CC and the volunteers discovered that Curtis was a very vain cat. The way to get him to slowly open up and allow touch was to keep telling him what a very handsome boy he was. Since Curtis was indeed quite striking looking, it was easy for everyone to come up with new things to praise Curtis about. “Oh, you have the most fabulous half mustache.” “Your fur really shines.” And on and on, they cooed sweet nothings in Curtis ear while they snuck in pets and cajoled him into letting them pick him up.
“I got an email from Corinne telling me what good friends Fonzie and Curtis were, that they were cuddled up together all the time. And how Curtis had allowed people in. I was astonished, I remembered him as a big, tough guy. She asked if I would consider taking Curtis home too.
“How can you deny these guys?”
When Corinne showed up this weekend and saw the newly mellow Fonzie and Curtis, she just could not get over the transformations. “They would not have ever been adoptable if it hadn’t been for the finishing school. Fonzie was truly one of the hard cases, Curtis too. And now they are big, squishy, furry lovebugs.”
Headmistress Terri said Fonzie’s turning point was that even though he was openly aggressive at first, it was also clear he was starved for attention.
“We had to take a chance on Fonzie before he’d take a chance on us. We had to go ahead and reach in to his cage and pet him and offer him baby food even though he was striking out. He was able to make the association that our hands offered soft caresses and yummy things, and he made the decision to come to us for more.
“Curtis was a very angry cat. The only way to break through to him was by petting his head from the outside when he was leaning his head against the side of his cage. Then once he got that association, he allowed us in for more and more contact. And he’s just been melting, melting, melting ever since.”
Terri, who knows her students very well said she has been totally blown away at how fast Curtis caved in.
“Curtis and Fonzie made the decision of their lifetime. Now they are going home.”
HOW YOU CAN HELP:1. Interested in opening your home and heart to a rescued Pahrump kitty? Please consider adopting one of the graduates from
Miss Sherry’s Finishing School for Felines or any of the other Pahrump cats currently residing at
Miss Kittys or
The Kit Kat Club.
2. Click on the image to the right to donate to the Network Rescue Fund, to help finance future animal rescues.
For more information:• See more on the
Nye County Cat Rescue community.
Story by Barbara Williamson
Photos by Mark Morgan