Meet Cooper!

It's been two weeks since Fletch has been gone, and the family felt ready to adopt a new barn cat. We went to the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society, which is the group who helped us find Fletch a few years ago. They take all comers, even ferals and cats with behavioral problems that other shelters won't take in. Because of that, they are willing to place tough cases as barn cats where they can be as active and aloof as they like.

Cooper was one of those cases. He's a two-year-old boy found out in the streets of Woburn, and the shelter there couldn't keep him because he was too "cage aggressive." He wasn't having a great time up at the MRFRS, either. The other cats picked on him, and he was mean right back.

So they were looking to find him a barn and a job to keep his high energy in check, and that's just what we were looking for. So, after a lot of yowling (he had to be netted to get him into the crate), he was in the car and coming home with us.

Cooper has to be in a cage for a couple weeks to get acclimated to his new home in the workshop. Then we can let him roam the workshop for another couple weeks, and finally we can let him have the run of the garden. I saw a baby bunny in the perennial border, and Tiegan spotted a groundhog sneaking in under the back fence, so if we think we can spring him sooner, we will. 

Cooper has a lot of energy, and it's not always manifested in people-friendly ways. Tiegan wants so badly to pet him, but he'll give a big swipe if he doesn't like it. He'll also want to playfully attack your hands, which is just too much for the kids, who still miss the world's friendliest cat. 

But it does bode well for his hunting abilities. 

On the bright side, he's happy to nuzzle through the bars when he gets food, and Tiegan caught him purring yesterday. We've already learned to keep him well fed, since he gets stir-crazy in the cage when he's hungry. We're hoping that once he gets used to us and can get out of the cage, he'll be a little less likely to take a swipe at bare arms. 

If not, we'll just let him do his thing without trying to be friends. I have a feeling once he's more confident in his position in his new home, and without other cats to mess with him, he'll be better off. And he's pretty young, so there's a lot of … youthful exuberance to deal with.

He does look kind of like Fletch, but his markings make a bullseye on each side. His face is also narrower, and his eyes are bluer. We named him Cooper because we like naming conventions for our animals. Fletcher and Cooper are our Medieval guildsmen, a nod to the important work our cats do for us.