Boots is a feral cat we can’t catch who comes and eats Batty’s food. Boots is getting bolder and I was able to take some pictures. I had to zoom all the way, because he doesn’t let me get close so the quality is meh.
Why is his face so fat? I have never seen a cat with a face that was this fat. He looks like a ground hog. Like is this normal?
With his squinty it’s possible he has an infected tooth. Or something to that affect.
Or he could just have a fat face.
But it’s symmetrically fat…
Then I think he just a chonk. Maybe a British Shorthair mix?
There are some breeds that just have fatter faces. British Shorthairs and Scottish Folds come to mind, so maybe he’s got a purebred like that hanging out in his family tree? My cat is just a domestic shorthair and has a much rounder face than my sister’s cats, and they have a typical cat profile.
I thought British shorthair …ears aren’t right for a Scottish fold.
But for some reason my first thought was that this is a cat who could be bringing orders to or from Dina’s cat in the Innkeeper series. 🙂
Boots the General coming to conspire with Sebastian North. 😉
He’s not fat, he’s fluffy!
Bwahaha, the last event at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Il was Fluffy last Wednesday night. It was a blast!
If he hasn’t been neutered it may be all the testosterone pumping up that cute face. Beth Stern, the cat rescue person, mentioned that in an Insta post once.
That is some serious side eye.
Boots has the appearance of a well fed cat (at least the parts I can see).
Pretty cat.
Boots’ food is probably not the only food he regularly eats. I bet he’s like Tramp in Lady & the Tramp, only instead of a row of restaurants he has a row of houses in the neighborhood.
I meant Batty’s food.
Unaltered male cats sometimes get “stud jowls.” They’re supposedly helpful to protect them while fighting. I’ve seen the on feral male cats before.
It could be cysts – one of my elderly cats gets them on his face. I take him periodically to get them drained.
It’s not just his face that’s fat. That is not a feral cat. That is one of those cats that roam all over their neighborhoods scarfing up multiple meals either by intimidation or by convincing persuadable humans that they are starving. He too sleek, well-fed and healthy looking to be a stray. About those cheeks, there are certain breeds of cat that have very long fur about the face.(Similar to a bobcat)
He doesn’t roam. He stays by our house and makes annoyed noises. we are his primary food source. 😉
Usually un-neutered males have fatter faces…
In that case, l’m must say he sure seems to be thriving under your care!
In that case, he’s clearly thriving under your care! As to his antisocial tendencies, you could speak to someone at your local animal shelter or ASPSA. They could put in touch with integration experts or information on socialization.
Is he doing the puffing the fur out thing some cats do to make themselves look bigger?
But he could have bad teeth and an infection. We had a stray with an abscess he looked squinty like that. His face looked cubby, but you couldn’t see the abscess lump unless it was from above looking down on his face. Full on he just looked chubby cheeked.
Yes, he could be perfectly normal. I have had several cats with big heads or faces. All of mine with that characteristic were good sized males..As you surmise since he is symmetrical it is less likely to be an underlying disease or jaw problem. He also looks in good coat.. We had one cat that was forever getting an infection in her jaw, not a tooth, she just kept apparently poking things into her gums. The swelling was quite noticeable on the line of the lower jaw. .He’s quite an attractive cat . Good luck with making a closer acquaintance.
I think it’s just the normal shape of his face … just as some people have narrow faces and some are wide … glad Boots is so well-fed, and comfortable enough to be getting bolder!
Is he an unfixed male? My aunt had a feral male cat that looked like that.
Yes, unfixed makes develop big faces like that.
Sooo many comments I could make, but we’ll keep this G-rated.
Cats with longer hair look like they have a fat face. I have two Maine Coon mixes and their fur makes them look like chipmunk cheeks.
Maybe he’s just furry. I had a Tabby named Ben like that with thick fur and a moon face and he was very shy, but would talk your ear off once he got to know you.
Your kitty looks pretty good to be feral. Are you sure he’s not been abandoned and it’s eating wherever he can?
I have noticed that an un-neutered male will have a larger head than a male that was neutered at a young stage. Perhaps that plus furry fluff would give that impression?
???????? I’m no help, but I think he’s eating more than just Batty’s food.
I had a very large cat (about 25 lbs), but his face didn’t wasn’t quite so fluffy. I think he might’ve been part Maine coon though, so he was big all over.
I can’t tell if he’s scrunched down or if he’s short. I think he looks very, um, fluffy. Yep, that’s what I’m sticking with. It’s just fluff. I think I’m going to use that for myself too! ????
You’re too late. I have had a sign I tacked to my board years ago with a picture of Garfield on it that says, “I’m not fat! I’m fluffy!”
Can we share? I bet there’s enough fluff to go around! ????
Maybe he is eating all the outdoor cats’ dinner in the neighborhood!
Yes, this normal for unneutered Tom cats. It protects the vulnerable areas of the face and neck during cat fights.
He’s not neutered most likely and it’s testosterone
He also looks kinda mean lol. Maybe he goes around eating everyone’s food and that’s how he got to that size?
Most likely an un-neutered male – they get a larger blockier head shape.
Good luck on taming him down
Unaltered male cats sometimes get “stud jowls.” They’re supposedly helpful to protect them while fighting. I’ve seen the on feral male cats before.
Well, at least you know it’s a cat. The alternatives could be a lot worse. ????
Maybe he stores food in his cheeks like squirrels ????
It could be just becauuse he’s an unneutered tomcat – the only other one I knew had a similar face shape.
This. He’s a tom – unneutered. Their heads get really big. “A mature un-neutered male cat will often develop a fairly round, broad head by the time they are two or three years old, due to the level of testosterone and other sex hormones coursing through their bodies. Neutering before the age of one year old usually means that your cat’s head and face will not widen up to the level that it might if they were not neutered-however, if your cat is castrated as an adult, their heads may already be rather wider and this is not something that is reversed by the castration procedure.”
He might just have really floofy cheeks.
I feel like this cat should be quoting Manny from Ice Age… “I’m not fat. I’m poofy.”
His whole body looks kind of chunky. I think he is hitting more than just Batty’s food!
His face is fat cause he’s an unfixed tom cat
Boots probably hasn’t been snipped. They get big around the shoulders and face if they’re entire males…
I think unneutered males get that broader head as a defensive mechanism – like padding. I’m sure I’m the 12th person tho post that 🙂
Hey Ilona, in my veterinary opinion, that’s likely an intact male tomcat. They get huge jowls as they mature. We in the US don’t see many intact adult male cats anymore, so we’re not used to seeing that.
Probably a unfixed male. Unfixed males tend to get chubby cheeks and look so adorable. Just don’t tell him that. 🙂
He’s been chowing down on the neighbors’ cat food as well, I think. Pretty kitty.
Un-neutered toms can get really wide/big heads. That was my fist thought when I saw the pictures. You might contact your local cat rescue, and see if they can get you setup with a humane trap and have him fixed, also give him vaccinations and a health check. At least that is what we do when we TNR (trap, neuter, return)
Un-neutered Male cats often develop “stud jowls” which can be quite sizeable. These typically subside in size after the cat is neutered.
Squishy face.
Looks like Boots is working the ‘hood and eating like a king.
Tom cats, undesexed males, have thicker cheeks. I can’t remember why but I remember we could always tell a mature age undesexed male just by their cheeks. They would be hard to touch as well. That would be my first guess.
I’ve had a semi-feral cat that had the same kind of face. The rest of him was thin and muscular (omg, the muscles on him!), so his cheeks stood out. However, he never would let me take care of him, and one year, he just stopped coming around. Since he had the fat cheeks for years before he disappeared, I don’t think it led to his demise (if that’s what happened to him). So I don’t think it’s something you need to catch him immediately to get him to a vet. Hopefully, someone will be able to tell you more.
In the time it took me to write my comment, it went from a single comment to 40-ish comments. Half of the comments are suggesting it’s because he’s unneutered. Which fits with the single cat (out of the 20 someodd cats I’ve had/lived with) who had it. He would only let me pet him some, feed him, and then he’d disappear. He wasn’t fixed and wasn’t a house cat.
The last place we lived, we fed a small group of feral/stray kitties. One of the tomcats had cheeks like that. I think “intact” males have this sometimes. The tomcat that liked to snuggle had it to a lesser degree and it felt like he just had the most muscular face know to kitty kind.
I highly recommend Temptations cat treats for bribery purposes.
He’s probably a mixed breed cat, with one strain being one of the large breed cats. Do an internet search on large breed cats, there are a couple of articles that have photos, and a couple of them seem to have the same facial structure.
I had a borderline feral cat named Jimmy growing up. He had a chubby face like that, but he was all muscle. He would come home about once every 2 weeks, eat himself into a coma, and then proceed to sleep on my bed for 48 hours. He would hang out a few days and then be gone. He was a huge cat, and was quite mean, except to me. He was my cat and he would let me hold him like a baby for hours. He had a face like that. Good luck on getting close to him, once he lets you pet him I bet he will be a big love!!
He’s just a fatty. He looks fine to me. Fat but ok. Perhaps you have become his second or third human.
I have a visitor come to my home everyday. I think I’m his second human, second family. I just can’t catch him.
I know nothing about cats but I think he is handsome
Maybe Boots isn’t feral, just a cat that likes to eat. This sounds awful, but have you tried catching him? His face and eyes look as if there is something caught on his head like a rubber band that could be tangled in his fur. If you catch him, you can check.
I think that’s just his face (bone structure and a lot of thick fur).
Mine as a big head too!
I named him SuperTeleGattone (as an ’80s character) just because of that! ????
Chubby cheeks depend on the cat. The pictures look like he’s annoyed. I wonder if he’s fixed or not. My male cat, before he was fixed, sounded like he was constantly annoyed. He would prowl around sniffing at everything and hiss if you tried to do anything with him. Once he got fixed, all that stopped.
Very pretty colors on Boots. 🙂
We feed a feral cat, & had him TNR’d a few years ago. His head size definitely shrunk afterwards. I have no idea why unneutered male cats have big heads, I just know that they do.
If his face is fat like that a lot and he’s squinty eyed like that a lot it generally means they are in some sort of pain. There is a feline grimace scale and he looks like he could fall on the scale headed toward pain.
To be honest my sister’s cat has a really wide face, heavy jaws, he’s lean as possible. He’s an outdoor cat and the muscles on his jaw have grown in direct proportion to his ability to hunt and kill prey. It’s a muscle that increases their bite strength. He’s gone head to head with raccoons, squirrels, crows, ravens, rabbits, skunks, anything he think he has a shot against. He’s also cuddly and super sweet with humans. Honestly one of the coolest cats I’ve ever met. Human or feline.
We had a cat….Fritz…..who had a fat face…. mostly from scar tissue……he was a fighter and a wanderer. He was an outdoor (sometimes indoor) cat and was not neutered. This was back in the 70’s and 80’s…. before there was a big push to get pets fixed . We did finally get him neutered ….. the vet said he would stop his nefarious ways …. for the most part. Anyway….. his cheeks were pretty much scar tissue. He was such a cool cat…. I miss him to this day. Your feral cat looks pretty fluffy. ????
Hmm, are his eyes always that squinty or was this just for the moment? His ear’s not tipped, you’re sure he’s a stray or abandoned? I’m assuming you’ve already asked around your neighbourhood to make sure he isn’t actually someone’s cat.
It might be worth contacting a local cat rescue/TNR group and asking them to come out and catch him. They can check if he’s chipped, get him updated on shots and fleas, make sure he’s neutered. If he’s feral they’ll bring him back after being sure he’s healthy as a community cat and you can keep an eye on him as usual.
A quick google shows a number of groups in the Austin area that you can probably contact.
It’s because of all the food he is stealing from Betty’s
He looks a *little* grumpy. Unneutered male cats typically develop big heads like that.
Exactly, we in the cat fancy call that a stud head. Once he’s neutered, the jowls will disappear.
He is beautiful, that’s for sure!
how interesting;i’ve never heard about that
yeah he definitely has that big block male head (i know its bad but I kinda love the chunky unneutered male head!!)
It seems all un-altered male cats always have those big block heads. I’ve never seen one without the huge jaw muscles.
Oh no that big head is the best. My family rescued some cats from our backyard and there is one that had that enormous fat head. It shrinks some once they’re neutered but it does not disappear. You just want to constantly pinch them haha! Its awesome!
We have a stray male that took up with us a couple of years ago. He is gray and has a huge head. I thought it might be his breed but he is not fixed so that explains the head.
everyone is correct!
he’s a big tom with a normal tom head…..
THANK YOU BETTY FOR SHARING
BATTY ….. sorry for the typo!
Yep, typical feral Tom Cat
You took the words right out of my hands. Good , fast response
What you are seeing is “Tom Cat-itis”
No disrespect to Tom
For some reason the old males develop a very wide head.
Well as people age the faces seem to get wider too. Compare pictures of your younger self.
It’s the testosterone that does that.
We’ve been catching all the feral cats in our neighborhood and getting them spayed…we got a cage from the cat center and put tasty food in it…they all go in…for some reason they like it in the cage…????♀️
Maybe he has British Shorthair genes
We have 12ft brick roof supports that get toasty warm from east facing, I didn’t know they had 3ft deep hollow interior. Feral cats constantly having kittens inside the supports. Can’t reach them being short fat Choctaw lady and getting ANY household help now basically impossible. Considering just dragging out dang dining room table to stand on and cover the comfy spot.
Do you have any of these in or around the house? Might be helpful:
https://www.cuteness.com/article/natural-oils-repel-cats
Having actually adopted 37 cats in my lifetime, I can say without any consideration that I might be incorrect that Boots has a small face with a massive amount of hair around his neck. When the time comes and you can touch him, you will be able to smooth that hair back and see that his head is not larger than any other cat’s head. If you look at what would be a “chin” on a person, you can see that the “ruff” around his neck doesn’t go to his face there. Cats who have long hair don’t have long hair on their faces, so once you look past their faces, you see a lot of long hair, and when the angle is fairly-well straight-on in a 2D photo, it’s hard to see that their faces are small while their hair makes their necks look really large. Until I got to the end, after I had seen 3 photos of him, I thought he was a gorgeous cat with all things in normal proportions. Your question about his fat head surprised me. I looked again a few times and I still don’t see a large head. I see clear photos of a cat who just woke up and can’t figure out if he can be bothered to run away or just wait for the annoying person with the camera to give it up and go away. This cat definitely resembles many male cats I’ve seen, which does also play into how large his neck hair makes him look. Let me know if you want to know how to get a cat who was born without any people in its life to come to you to be neutered. It takes a lot of time, but it can be done. He may not ever want to be a house cat, but neutering will give him a much longer life, even outdoors.
I would also give him his own bowl of food so Batty can eat. But that’s just me. We have a saying, you know. “If you name it, the cat is yours.”
The naming the cat thing is soo true????????????
Yes! You are stuck with them. Even if you name them non-names like Kitty, Baby Kitten, Little Orange Kitten, or Enemy Kitten (my other cats hated him at first). It’s pretty embarrassing when you finally get them to the vet too.
Yes. Hiss spat was known at vet as pixie and the most loving cat.
Yeah, that happened to me too! And now Margot the thief (in honor of Lupin III) is the most cuddly cat we have ????
He’s pretty no matter what.
There’s a stray that comes around my place, and I’d like to post his picture locally, to see if he has an owner somewhere looking for him, but he’s a lot faster than I am,,, never can get a picture.
He eats the birdfood. ???
He is desperately hungry. Cats are obligated carnivores, but not all of them know how to hunt.
It would be a great kindness to give him some cat food.
Sorry, that’s obligate. It means they must eat meat.
as a fellow chonk I feel attacked ????. he’s just a big boi, absolute unit
We have a little orange cat with one eye that doesn’t shine. We’ve taken to calling him ol’ one eyed Charlie, and have been feeding him religiously. Holding out on hope that he’ll kill some of the rats eating my chicken feed!
I am not an expert what so ever but I think that sometimes male, unneutered cats can have a quite a large face and normal body
Yup 🙂
He reminds me of a stray we used to see around. We called him dino head. His head was just so big he looked kinda prehistoric. Lol
A friend of mine has British shorthairs, and while I agree being un-neutered can do a lot, there are other explanations! https://www.instagram.com/spartacus_and_caesar/
He looks like a pretty normal and hopefully healthy boy
I was a veterinary technician for 15 years. When a male cat is intact (has his testicles) or had them for a long time prior to being neutered; they develop very dense bone and muscles in the head and neck. This is a defense mechanism for fighting. They tend to also have thicker fur around the head as well. Whoo hoo for testosterone! *silently praying you don’t judge my grammar* 🙂
I’ve usually heard it refered to as “tomcat jowls” or “stud jowls”. Seen plenty of strays with ’em.
Wow, I just have to say that I have been educated. That’s so interesting!
+1
Yes, saeward is correct in my humble opinion of being former veterinary technician and animal rehab.
Actually it’s autocorrect that usually makes my electronic writings “better” by “fixing” my grammar. Grin
Beautiful cat. Just call it a feral gray and white domestic short hair. Better go ahead and put your name on list for hav a hart trap so you can get him rabies vaccine. Protects you and your community as well him.
Good job on picture.
His legs look super short.
When a Tom cat gets a fat head it is a sign of an older uncut Tom of over two years or so. Also if a fighter, the small infections increase the size and intimidate the younger toms. The fat head black Tom in our block is the top cat. Lucky he is so dominant he doesn’t mind last season half grown cats following him around trying to learn from him and using him for protection. Not all are like that.
That explains why Heathcliff was drawn the way he was 🙂
Agree that intact male cats (not neutered) can develop larger jowls. This is because they fight more, among other reasons (mating) so they need stronger facial and jaw muscles.
He’s a really pretty kitty!
Crazy. He looks just like my Snarf. When I adopted Snarf I was told his head was big due to him being neutered after he hit puberty. Five years later he still has a big head.
We once had a feral cat that would actually come in through our cat flap and eat our cat’s food in our house. I couldn’t figure out why suddenly our cat started peeing all over his eating area and shredding his cat food bag. We finally put it all together and caught the feral cat with a raccoon cage trap and took him down to a no-kill shelter.
Vet tech ????♀️ Yes, for an adult unneutered male cat, the cheeks are normal. You don’t normally see them like that, because males that are neutered young don’t develop them. He’s very handsome!
We have 3 female cats and 1 male. The male’s face is drastically different than the 3 females’. His face is sharp and his nose long. But he is a short-haired cat. I imagine with more fur he’d look like he had a really big head.
One of the females is his sister, from the same litter, and her face doesn’t have the same sharp nose he has. Her face is small like the other female cats’ faces in our home.
Fun fact time.
A cat in heat cries because her ovaries will not release an egg until a male breeds her and the sharp “spikes” on his penis cause the egg to be released. Her ovaries hurt when an egg is mature and ready to be released. Being in the same litter does not mean cats have the same two parents. The only way to be certain that kittens have the same two parents is to keep both parents inside without any other males around while the female is in heat.
We have 12ft brick roof supports that get toasty warm from east facing, I didn’t know they had 3ft deep hollow interior. Feral cats constantly having kittens inside the supports. Can’t reach them being short fat Choctaw lady and getting ANY household help now basically impossible. Considering just dragging out dang dining room table to stand on and cover the comfy spot.
Yes he is fine and normal. 1 he is a bit scrunched up causing his hair is puffed out more and 2 depends on his genetics. There are several types of cats with rounder types of faces. I volunteered at a cat shelter and with ferals and have seen many like this. I found that ferals like it when you sing to them. You don’t have to sing well either. You are my sunshine always went over well. I would also pick a spot near but not too close to where they hung out and would just sit there and read for awhile. They get used to you that way.
As females are in heat over a period of time they can have several partners resulting in different looking kitties ????
Congrats on the new kitty!
My MIL has a cat like this! We actually named him Big Head. And it’s just his size. We’ve taken him to the vet and he’s completely normal…just big.
Putting the computer up to my face like an idiot, it looks to me like I can see the edge of a collar. That would suggest the collar is a little too tight forcing the fur to puff up a little bit. Assuming what I’m seeing is correct. It looks like a pretty healthy cat to me so maybe not so much a stray but an outside cat that travels about. There was one in my old apartment complex that had slightly longer hair so I never saw the collar until one day the cat tried tried to fit into a fence hole a little too small for it. Head came back out but the fur on the face was puffed up enough to see the collar hidden beneath. Anyway, just a thought.
My sister had a part Siamese boy cat who had very plush fur and neck ruff. He got “fixed” at six or seven months old because a) it would keep him from spraying the furniture, and b) he wouldn’t behave inappropriately with our then-eighteen year old, spayed and definitely Not Interested, female cat. He stayed plushy like that his whole life and he lived to be fifteen or so. Maybe genetics?
I know that some cats store fat in there faces. We had a male feral cat who had the biggest head and cheeks I’d ever seen. Very much like the your Boots. So, I do believe this is perfectly normal to some specific breeds.
I have no idea why this picture of my dog posted below my statement. ????????♀️
I’m glad it did because he is super cute!
Maybe be thinks he’s a cat. My sisters chocolate lab tries to convince her that he’s a big brown cat and should be able to eat the cat food too!
All knowing cutie,
Rhooooo he’s so cute !!!
I agree with the unneutered tom theory, but he also might be part Maine coon. I’ve seen some that look like that while others just have a lion mane.
Love your old dachsie! I miss mine.
We’ve used the same stray cat naming strategy for our stray: Mr. Stripey Boy. There’s also That Black One. Trap him and get him neutered before he beats up on your cat. Good luck.
Un-neutered males have a lot of testosterone and over time develop large jowls. That appears to be what you’re seeing. (We see it in stray cats we bring into the shelter I volunteer at.) I’ve not seen them go away once they get neutered, at least not in our shelter kiddos. I love those big jowls!!! He is very handsome!
Consider calling a spay, neuter, release group to trap him. You want to be sure he is heathy himself and not going to sicken other cats.
Feral and pet cats are killing up to a billion songbirds a year. For fun, not food often.
He’s a handsome kitty. I hope he is well and warms up for some lovins!
Oh yeah, he’s a big ol’ un-neutered tomcat. That’s what causes the jowlyness. He may also have some Persian or British Shorthair or other flatter-faced ancestor in his background, which accentuates the look.
He looks like he’s in great shape for a feral—from the picture, his fur looks well-groomed and clean, and his ears aren’t torn up. Makes me wonder if someone—or several someones—actually does claim this kitty.
He’s extra fluffy because he’s an outside cat and sitting like that smooshes it around his head and neck.
Our outside cat (not feral) looks that way until she’s had a good brushing early summertime.
I had a stray male that I finally was able to get into the house and to the vet. He was an intact male and had a huge head, neck and shoulders and tons and tons and tons of scars from fights. Miss you Captain Jack Harkness (Dr Who reference). Everyone thought I had named him after Captain Jack Sparrow.
My guess is that boots is bootlegging other cats food as well. That does fatten a guy. I also had to cancel my trip to Oxford England, where my dear friend was going to do a presentation for the world literacy Summit. Actually, I’m quite relieved. I’d rather not be sick away from home.
Probably hoarding rodents for the apocalypse.
I don’t know if they have this in your area but where I live, which is south of Houston, there is an organization that will trap, spay/neuter stray cats and release them back to where they were trapped. They notch one ear as a sign the cat has had the surgery. My vet works with this group and I have brought them a stray that my neighbor was feeding and returned her after being spayed. It was free. I don’t know if the other vets in town also work this group. I had heard or read about it but didn’t know the name of the organization so called my vet. They knew about it and said to bring the cat in.
He looks like he has developed jowls due to being a whole male. I would suggest maybe having him vetted if possible. I don’t know if you have any spay, neuter, and release programs near you. These programs usually test for FIV and feline leukemia. It is important to protect your fur baby. Maybe he will one day job your family.
He is more than likely an un-neutered male. That is from testosterone, which causes the face skin to get super thick as protection from fighting.
I bet kitty is an intact male. I have had a few toms that developed that fierce large face. Glad he has a feeder who cares!
Steve
He is an unneutered adult male cat – that is how their cheeks normally look. They shrink down once they are neutered. His ears are not torn up so he may be pretty young.
What concerns me is that he does not look happy and relaxed (eyes and he is crouching instead of lying down). That may be because you are taking a picture of him.
Please do continue feeding the poor fellow. It would be beneficial to trap him and have him neutered (and then bring him back to your yard), as this will cut down on his fighting and keep him healthier. Your local shelter likely has a trap that you can borrow. I used to do animal rescue, did this kind of thing for decades.
So now we know he’s okay. Whew. I definitely think he’s yours now. It may take him years to warm up to you but if you keep at it, he might. It has happened to me.
I LOVE the big, jowly Toms. He really IS all that and a bag of chips! There is a massive tiger tabby here that I’ve named “old Deuteronomy” cause he looks just like that big boy in “Cats”. His paws and leg circumference are 3-4x the females! I have “adopted” 12 community cats and work with my local shelter which supports a TrapNeuterRelease approach. It’s free and our teams are fantastic. They pick them up, work with vets on contract to humanely snip Pompoms and Pouches and return them right back to my property, my choice. They evaluate for the serious diseases, inoculate for rabies and apply a standard Flea/tick to at least interrupt that cycle. I also treat for fleas on my ground and spot treat if I’ve managed to earn that much trust. I do supplement food in moderation because I assertively help the TNR. (If you just feed and don’t help get them spayed/nuetered, Toms will be more active and females will actually have much bigger litters, a vicious cycle of which most folks are not aware.) Also moderate feeding reduces some of the local prey impact that we don’t like to see, like the birds. By returning them here we are also keeping balance in the overall feral community. These are very close knit matriarchal clowders – just like lions! – and keeping them together keeps new Toms from moving in, better controls some of the disease impact and can help manage nuisance critters. Clearly this topic is not dear to my heart. LoL
Yes! I love these big headed Tomcats. I have adopted a number of older Toms. They tend to have huge heads. They are the best!!
Such a beautiful, handsome boy. Thank you for sharing him.
I have a cat like that. She is really small and skiny. She don’t have long fur but the coat is really thick even on the summer. So her head looks huge but she is just fluffy a lot.
Cronshanks has gone undercover. He’s hidden from the Ministry of Magic, so more discretion regarding this issue will be highly appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
An unsuspicious fellow.
He’s a sexy, intact male. Jowls are common in unfixed mature boy cats. He probably is a baby daddy =D
big head iis pretty common with unneutered male cats. When I was at a shelter we usually got young guys so they hadn’t gotten the chonky head yet, but every once in awhile we’d get a big bruiser of a tom with a big head. My favorite was this tom who looked scary with all his scars and big swollen cheeks. Chonk bro had lived most of his life on the street, then one day went up to the ladies feeding him and decided it was time to retire. He’d never let anyone touch him until then, and suddenly all he wanted was to be pet. We had to keep him at the shelter because three newer wounds turned into abscess…es? Abscess’? Anywhosible, my dude was FIV positive so he went to a home with other FIV rescue cats. Turns out he likes kittens also, and is a giant flirt with female cats even with his ding-dangles gone.
From vet clinic worker
(Without examining) Looks like many male cats who fight. In this case looks like his left eye is involved -as that side looks quite swollen ( this happens often as during fights cat’s claws can shed outer older “layer” which is rich in bacteria. Eventually this infection is opened during scratching or (barring further fights with the same results[fat chance]_eventually be purged either from or through the body.
Good luck to you Boots????