Mr. Garibaldi

We named this paranoid semi-feral after the Babylon 5 security chief. After more than 8 years of backyard visits, he moved in with us.

It’s never been quite clear to me when he first turned up, but there are mentions of him in my Facebook feed as early as 2009. I discovered that he belonged to the feral colony cared for by our neighbor Joe, one block over. Joe called him Sidewinder. Because of the cat’s wary and stoic demeanor, I named him Mr. Garibaldi, after the troubled Babylon 5 security chief.

When Garibaldi eventually moved into the house, he immediately blended in with the Orlando (Tink, Tippy, and Perdita). You’ll see many photos of him with them on the Feline Formations page.

Though Mr. Garibaldi chose eventually to move into our house (where he slept on my chest at night!) he always remained somewhat feral. If he wanted to go out at night, he’d spray the kitchen dish towels. One spring night he did that, and I let him out. He never came back. He ran into a coyote in the neighbors’ overgrown back yard. I found his body there the next day—one of the most upsetting experiences of my life.

Here’s his story:

April 17, 2009—Facebook—Befriending the scruffy orange cat that’s living in my back yard. My cats seem to like him.

Jan. 2, 2010—The first photo I have of the orange cat. He’s looking a bit bedraggled.

June 8, 2012—Garibaldi is back! Five years ago I began feeding a skinny, skittish neighborhood stray. Three years ago “Mr. Garibaldi” was adopted by a neighbor. But he still comes back to visit. We hadn’t seen him for months, and were worried. But, as you can see here, he looks just fine. And he enjoyed a dish of treats and some water.

August 12, 2016—Mr. Garibaldi snoozes while I read on the patio. A quiet summer evening:

August 31, 2016—Today left much to be desired. I don’t like rain. The indoor cats wouldn’t go out, and Mr. Garibaldi, the outdoor cat, spent the day curled up in the bamboo grove outside my office window. The refrigerator repair guy was running late and ended up cancelling until tomorrow. The tree service confirmed that my tree is dying and needs to be removed. I managed to somehow screw up making a minestrone soup (that should be impossible).

While we were eating the disappointing soup for dinner, Tom looked out at the back porch and yelled “There’s a gigantic possum.”

This was not a trick to enable him to dispose of the soup.

Sure enough, there was a huge, furry, possum eating Mr. Garibaldi’s dinner. I opened the door yelled at it. It turned around and looked at me, unflapped, and for a moment I thought it was going to come into the house. But instead it moved over and drank Mr. Garibaldi’s water. Meanwhile, Tom tackled Mr. Tippy, who’d come barreling through the kitchen to help out.

When the possum finished its drink, it wandered slowly down the steps, past Mr. Garibaldi. At the foot of the stairs it stopped and looked at me reproachfully before waddling off into the night.

I brought in all the dishes, washed them, and told Mr. Garibaldi if he wants to dine after dark he will just have to come into the house like a normal cat.

Sept. 21, 2016—Using the rhubarb as a heated bed!

Jan. 6, 2017—A red-letter day!

Four nights of 22-degree weather have had an effect on our semi-feral cat, Mr. Garibaldi. He has an insulated den with a heated bed, under the house. Normally he comes inside three or four times a day, about 20 minutes at a time, mostly to get petted while he rolls around on the rug in front of the kitchen sink. But recently he has begun exploring the house. Tonight he went upstairs…and didn’t come back down.

Finally I went upstairs and found him curled up on a small rug next to our bed. The temperature in our attic bedroom is about 75 degrees, and the heat system is blowing hot air into the room. When I approached him, he rolled over on his back, waved his paws in the air and let me give him a tummy rub. After an hour, he shows no sign of leaving. Garibaldi has discovered where we keep Summer.

Jan. 12, 2017—Last night Garibaldi not only decided to stay inside, he hopped right onto the bed, curled up beside me, and went to sleep. This was most unexpected. Mr. Tippy was a little miffed, but after attacking my feet for 10 minutes he forgot all about Garibaldi and went to sleep.

Feb. 23, 2017—Unrest among the cats! Mr. Garibaldi and Max, the neighborhood cat who visits 20 times a day, apparently had a deep disagreement last week. Max subsequently holed up at his owners’ house for the weekend, but is now back visiting us. We have a “one visitor at a time” rule in force. At the moment, Max is upstairs with the household cats and Garibaldi is fuming out on the back porch. We’ll do a “cat exchange” at dinner time.

June 11, 2017—Two photos of Mr. Garibaldi enjoying the garden.