This is Bad Luck. He is a working cat at a remote desert restaurant and hotel, tasked with keeping the rodent population down. In the photo above he is irritated because nobody is giving him any food. Not that he needs any food -- he ate a giant kangaroo rat only a few hours prior to this photo.
Being a working cat is hard work, and sometimes a cat just needs to take a break. Bad Luck is not a "feral" cat by any stretch of the word, no feral cat would just boldly come up to where people are and beg for food from them or stretch out on a chair where people are walking back and forth nearby. He's not a lap cat, but he's certainly a cat who loves the occasional ear scritch and chin rub.
And shortly after this photo, he took off after a bird. The bird got away. Bad Luck is bad luck for rodents, but birds just laugh at him.
-- Badtux the Cat-blogging Penguin
Do not fuck with this cat.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I could not get any good photos of him with people nearby, generally because he was twisting underneath their chairs begging for food and all I managed to focus on was somebody's leg. But he is *GIGANTIC*. The Mighty Fang is big, but TMF's size is as much blubber as anything else. Bad Luck is simply huge, and he's a working cat, by jove -- it ain't blubber.
ReplyDeleteBut you are most certainly correct -- do *not* fuck with this cat. He has the capability to make you hurt. Some kid found that out the hard way, he yanked on Bad Luck's tail and ended up bleeding and there was talk of putting Bad Luck down. Luckily sanity prevailed and Bad Luck was allowed to resume his duty as eater of rats, chaser of birds, and beggar of morsels. And he does his job quite well, thank you -- I saw not a morsel uneaten, rat uneaten, or bird unchased during my entire stay.
-- Badtux the Cat-admirin' Penguin
I met a cat once when camping . Sitting by the fire in the dark far away from anyone or thing . He came out of the dark and sat by the fire . We offered him some rice (I was a vegan at the time) which he picked up in his paw , sniffed and then put back . Off he went back in the brush and 2 minutes later returned with a fresh caught mouse that he ate by our fire . Turns out he was once a house cat that has been turned loose by his master because she thought he was better off wild . Stupid thinking I agree , but I visited him at that camp spot for 3 or 4 years in a row and he too was huge but very gentle to people . "Sir Walter David Thorn" was him name , I met the owner once by chance once .
ReplyDeletea nostaglic w3ski
Beautiful animal. So proud. And so damn big.
ReplyDeleteI suppose that second photo does give you some idea of his size. He filled up that chair nicely, and it is *not* a kid's chair, it's a normal-sized adult's chair.
ReplyDelete