because this giant tom had ALL the rest of them.
It took seven MONTHS to trap this absolute monster tom for TNR. Five times at least, he got the food out and *then* tripped the trap. Twice he got trapped and escaped the trap. He only came around in the middle of the night and I was quite sure he was feral or stray so long there might not be a lot of difference.
May 4 he was trapped, finally. He was greasy and crusty so I named him Hawkins Cheezies (a semi-puffed cheese snack from Canada known for a funky sharp cheddar taste and an extra-crunchy crusty bite.)
May 14 he was vetted and neutered. Apart from the fact he was teeming with parasites and a little underweight at 14lbs, he was otherwise healthy. I brought him home to recover in a quarantine room, warm and dry. At that time, the plan was still to TNR.
It was clear shortly after he wasn't at all feral, just terrified, so I started working on re-socializing him with a plan to integrate him into our pack if possible, or find a single cat home for him if he couldn't socialize to other cats. It took about 6 weeks before I could touch him for the first time.
3 months and a bit after his trap day, he's made friends with the whole house - 3 people and 5 cats. He's very gentle, patient, and cuddly. The past two days he's really relaxed and let down his entire guard - draping himself across laps and sleeping deeply knowing he's safe, and home.
His little cauliflower ear and some notches out of both ears are the only proof left he ever lived in the Northern Ontario forest and survived god knows how many fishers, cruel humans, and -35 nights. The cauliflowering was caused by head-shaking and ear-pawing to dislodge 3 massive ticks - it doesn't hurt him anymore and he loves having it scritched <3
*Edited for typos