Spartacus Domestic Short Hair & Tabby Mix Cookeville, TN

Hello! It's pretty cool that I do look a lot like an Egyptian Mau cat. I got my initial name Skinny when a lady in Sparta first saw me wandering in the neighborhood and was really worried about me. I was very thin and had an obvious respiratory infection. I didn't feel good, but I kept coming back to this house because this new lady who moved in kept out fresh clean water all the time and would put out dry and wet food for me every time she saw me. I started letting her pet me, but I did not want her to pick up me. It made me really worried and scared when she would try to do that.

Eventually she called her friend, Ms Tana, to try and trap me, but I would never go inside the trap. (Maybe I had bad experiences with those before.) Ms Tana thought I was a girl because she thought she saw some dilute orange mixed in with my light gray colors. I got worried because the lady who had been feeding me got taken away on a bed with wheels in a big thing with flashing lights and loud sirens. Finally she came home, but she still didn't come outside much. I had to start wandering around to other houses again to try to find good food. There were some other people a couple of houses away who were pretty nice. They must have known I was sick too, because they tried really hard to make friends with me and take care of me. They started calling me Enzo.

One day Ms Tana came to the other house where I had been going & asked if they had seen me. While she was talking to them, I came around the corner of the house and went right up to one of the ladies who lived there because I was hungry, and it was my time to eat. I even let this one lady pick me up sometimes. Little did I know Ms Tana & that lady had a plan. So, when the lady picked me up, Ms Tana brought over a big carrier, and they both put me inside. The next day I ended up in a building with a lot of other cats in carriers and traps. I got drugs to make me sleep, got neutered, and got an antibiotic injection to help me get rid of my stubborn respiratory infection. I got tested to make sure I didn't have feline leukemia or feline immunodeficiency virus - thankfully, both were negative.

Anyway, I have been at Ms Tana's ever since. I got to feeling better and better. And I was a friendly boy. I LIKED kind people tlc attention. I get along well with most of the other kitties at her house. But I still growl sometimes when it is feeding time, especially when there is wet/canned food to eat. I remember having to hunt, scrounge, beg, and compete for food. Too many bad memories. I want all my food to myself, so the other kitties learned to stay away from me when I am eating. I also get really nervous when too many of the other cats get too close to me all at once. I get sort of panicky, hiss & smack at them, and then run away to find a place kind of all to myself. Sometimes I even put myself back in the kitty condo I was in when Ms Tana was giving me meds because it is private, and I feel safe there. It's pretty nice here, but it would be better if I could have a human more to myself. Ms Tana just wants the best for all of us. I agree with her that I would be happier and more content if I had more one on one time with humans and not so many other kitties to compete with for time and tlc attention. I do like having one or two kitty friends though as long as they are nice to me and know how to respect boundaries. Oh, and Ms Tana did not think Skinny or Enzo or Skinny Enzo fit me, so she renamed me Spartacus, kind of after where I was living and trying to survive outside on my own. Do you have room in your heart to add me to your home as your furever cherished family member?