His full name is ScruffyCat The Little Guy. Orange shorthair tabby, Standard Edition. Medium size (call him a welterweight, or light middleweight) at 12+ lbs, but very strong and lightning quick. Born and neglected in a large commercial building downtown. Knows about litterboxes, is polite to a fault, but that's it. Not a lapcat, dislikes being picked up. Carriers give him the heebie-jeebies. Hates brushing. Prefers shade to sunlight - the sun is a disturbing new experience for him after roughly 4 years in the hallways, stairwells and basement of a dank and dark building. Tough customer and proven survivor.

Various cats whose paths and mine have crossed. I now have four. Unfortunately, PictureTrail's albums use frames, and they modify the pictures to suit their own notions of viewability.

A Feral Cat resource organization in New York City. They helped me "rescue" Scruffy. I now help them help others. The video linked off the main page is a must-see.

The Internet is the ultimate resource. How a newsgroup "rescued" a cat. A happy ending, but the story within the story is very sad. Please read it.

An essay posted to Usenet by my friend Megan, and later plagiarized shamelessly off the web-board to which she had in hindsight more than a little unwisely reposted it. Republished with permission, in as near to the original form as the Google archive allows.

Interfering in the lives of feral cats isn't without complications. This is how a scaredycat got his uncharacteristic name.