He was about 17 pounds when he was running the nearby streets. He was fighting tomcats, winning and raping every female that was in season. That can happen 3 times a year for a female cat and Sad Face wasn't shooting blanks. There were a lot of young cats and kittens nearby.

Before there were any cats in my house I would feed now and again the adolescent Sad Face and one time I got him out of a snow bank to bring him into the house to get warmed up and have a meal before I sent him back to the street.

Most street cats die early but many do not. In the spring of 2017 I got in touch with cattrapper.org (cat lovers) and they came to my neighborhood to TNR (trap,neuter, return) a bunch of cats. We trapped a boatload and the kittens were kept and offered for adoption. The cats out back now were all trapped, neutered, vaccinated and returned at no cost by volunteer vet students supervised by a DVM who was catching no pay. Even Nasty Mom got captured and she lives across the street and over a fence or two. TNR takes a cat off the street for just ONE DAY with the surgical techniques now available.

And then Sad Face got trapped one night and was held in a garage in a cage until he could see the doctor in the morning. Barbara from cattrappers told me that Sad Face had wounds all over him and a festering abscess on a rear upper leg but that out of the cage on the steel table he was as gentle as a new-born kitten. In some which way he figured the humans there would be kind to him like I had been. I like to think that anyway.

Instead of being put down as a vicious street tom Sad Face was treated and held for three days to be loaded up with antibiotics that ultimately healed his wounds. Unheard of but the young students of vet medicine and the DVM fell for him. Barbara told me that nobody at the clinic had ever seen that big or ripped-up street tom that was so gentle.

I had fed the cats outside earlier before I rolled into the driveway after my 6:30 a.m. beer and muffin run this morning. Sad Face was sitting on the front walk catching some morning sun with a full belly. He's still a street cat but he never moved when I walked up to him to rub his ears, neck, skull and shoulders gently. He just closed his eyes.

I went out the front door this morning to fetch my newspapers and Sad Face was sitting out front. He gave me the "I'm hungry" look as I rubbed his neck. I went in and then out the side door to gather up last night's food platters and there he was again.

I haven't had breakfast yet but all the cats have had a great meal.