JACKAL

Jackal the whole story. I've been asked questions about Jackal so here goes. I thought that since I don't fear feral cats I could volunteer to take one with me and try to make it friendly. I talked Happy Endings No Kill Cat Shelter into letting me take an all black cat named Dylan.  He was eight, not friendly and had lived his whole life in a cage.  He was with me for almost a month and had stopped biting me. He would even sit up on the dash and watch cars go by. I was at a very large steel plant in Chicago, IL getting loaded. When I returned to my truck the door was slightly open. I looked all over the inside for Dylan but didn't find him. I searched all around outside but didn't see him. It was at night and they were closing so I had to leave. I returned the next day with a live trap and started hunting for him. I asked the workers to keep an eye out for him. Over the next several months I stopped their every chance I got. The workers gave me several reports of sightings and locations to set the traps. I would walk all over looking for him and had spotted a black cat several times but as soon as I got close he ran.
I watched a black cat sniff around the live trap but didn't go in. Then it happened, a couple weeks later and several attemps there was a cat in the trap. He was going insane. I was afraid he would hurt himself. I put a carrier up against the live trap and got him to move into the carrier. I was so hopeful that it was Dylan I called and let everyone know I had him. I took him to Crawford Animal Hospital where my wife works so he could get checked out. They were closed but we were to set him up in a cage so the doctor could check him out the next day.
As soon as I opened the carrier he went nuts. He wanted out of there and my blood. I was able to get a pill in him, who knows how. I tried to muzzle him and he destroyed a new hard plastic muzzle designed to withstand a cats bite. While he was killing the muzzle, we got flea stuff on him. I also managed to get blood all over me, the floor, the walls, and the cat. None of which was the cats. He also managed to tear up the room. He tore pictures off the walls, knocked stuff over and off the counter. The room was trashed. I got him somehow back in the carrier, I don't know how. Then he was put carrier and all in a cage with a litter box. No food or water because we knew he would have to be put under for the exam and it's better to have an empty stomach. Dr. Hoyer checked him out. That is when it was discovered that I didn't catch Dylan. This cat was an intact male and Dylan was fixed. The doctor fixed (neutered) him and gave him several shots including one to make sure he didn't get sick. Dr. Hoyer also put him in quarantine because he had bitten me. The staff would feed, water and clean his cage but would not go near him. This had to be done for 10 days so he could be released from quarantine. If he would have shown signs of rabies, they would have had to cut his head off and examine his brain and I would have been given really painful shots in my stomach. I'm really glad that didn't happen. Meanwhile I was still searching for Dylan and checking with the workers but there were no more sightings.
After the 10 days he was released from quarantine. Then he was given to me. I think they were glad to get rid of him. He would growl and hiss at them. If they got too close he would lunge at them. As a parting gift they put him on medicine, not liquid I could squirt in from a distance, but pills. I think they were actually giggling as I left. At least my wife seemed to be. In the truck I let him settle in. Which to him meant stay as far away from me as possible. Then came pill time. We squared off. Cat verses man, an epic battle. Bob did, after several bitten fingers, get the pill. There was no way I could keep pilling him the way I was going about it. I just don't have enough fingers. I tried thick leather construction gloves but again he bit right through. He doesn't just bite through skin and muscle but I swear into my bones as well. Next I put an oven mitt over the gloves. It still felt like a vice clamping down on my hand but it stopped him from punching through my flesh.
He was renamed Jackal. A mythical demon creature. The name seemed to fit better then Bob. The fight to pill him soon added a great chase that as small as the cab of the truck is had me winded. We wasted several pills but he got what he was supposed to and got better mostly. Boy I wish the shot had worked. Jackal still had nasal congestion but no more runny nose and only sneezed now and then.
I started trying to pet him. This Jackal didn't take too kindly to. Biting and hissing and lunging was the norm. I still stopped and looked for Dylan but after over a month with no sightings it was decided the cat I had was the cat we all were seeing. The workers had my number if they spotted a black cat. Hopefully he moved out of the area and found a home. Jackal did eventually let me put the oven mitt glove on him. I started to move it ever so slightly by his ear with some tolerance on his part. Then one day he let me pet him. He started purring and nusseling  into me. I was in shock. It had to be some new trick to try and kill me. I removed the gloves and sure enough I was petting him bare handed. Wow! I did nothing different from the day before but he was friendly. You can't imagine how I felt. Since he now was friendly I couldn't wait to have others try to pet him. My wife wanted to wait fearing this was a fluke and Jackal would choose her hand to have a relapse on. My brother-in-law Frank dumb or brave tried petting him and had no problems.
Time to take him back to Crawford Animal Hospital to get his nose checked out. Now that they could touch him and observe him awake they got a better feel for what was going on. They did blood work and decided to scope his nose. They stuffed a camera up his nose and found part of his sinuses were eaten away. This could have been from a very bad cold or cancer. Since there is no cure and it doesn't bother him it was decided to leave it and keep an eye on him. This means a foster home that has the training to know what to look for. That I know of they're only 2 homes willing to take in these cats. Ours and Angie another volunteer. Since we had him and Angie is normally full up, we have him. Happy Endings will not adopt out these medical cats fearing they won't get the care they need. The shelter is very protective of all their cats and wants the best for them.
Jackal is doing fine and sleeps on my pillow when I'm not home. This would be fine but he still has the nasal problems. Every now and then he wakes up and blows snot on my pillow. Yes, I come home to dried snot wads on my pillow. What's worse is when I'm sleeping and he blows buggers on my pillow and yes me. My wife says that he sleeps there more then me so it's his pillow to do what he wants with.