CJ, Captain Jack, isn’t with us anymore.

He came as part of the three pack with Belka. CJ was completely fearless. To the point of problematic. His fearlessness was a great asset in helping tame feral cats. He was a teammate. He would let them know there was nothing to fear because he didn’t know fear. He would give even the nastiest feral beastie a bath.

One time the power company knocked on my door. Then needed to trim the trees that were getting in the way of the power lines. Each and every one of those trees was a Bradford pear tree. They said “can we cut them?” and I said “can you cut them to the ground?”

They were very happy to do that for me. But then CJ disappeared that same day. We called the animal shelter and let them know that we were looking for this cat. A month later they got a call. They had gotten a call from their trapper. “I got this cat that was trying to play with the 18 wheelers delivering supplies to the Builders Supply. But I noticed after catching him that his left ear was deformed and then it was also tipped but you couldn’t tell that because of the deformity.” We can only assume that he hitched a ride on the logging trucks and ended up five miles away.

Animal control said “is it a dusty orange cat with a deformed left ear? We are looking for him.”

That’s how CJ became the rare tipped ear cat with a microchip.

He stayed with us for many years after that, but we knew his fearlessness but eventually take him. One day he didn’t come home. He lived his best life every day and served as an example to us all.