This is Figgy. She is a feral cat that is quickly becoming tame. I am completely enslaved to her. I have never been a cat lover. In fact, I am allergic to cats. Over a year ago, a wild tabby showed up and had kittens out in the no-man's land corner of our yard. My son noticed the kittens romping around from the back window but they would run for cover every time we tried to come in for a closer look. We began to leave food out for them but we could still never get close. Long story short, we now have the two grown "kittens," Figgy, a girl tortoise shell and Tommy, her all-black brother. About a month ago I trapped them and had them taken in to be spayed. Since they are "wild," the vet "tipped their ears." This is some kind of universal sign that the feral cat has been spayed or neutered. Only in Figgy's case, they near lopped her whole ear off! Poor thing, it makes me sick every time I see what they did to my beautiful baby! I'll get a better shot of it next time so you can see the hack job the vet did on her. So anyway, now I am a reformed cat hater, and I am head-over heels for this girl. For the past year, she has been hanging around our house and I would always talk to her and she would always seem to be listening. But no one could get close to her. In the early spring, she had kittens and it seemed that the pregnancy made her more friendly -- perhaps a survival instinct? In any case, I ended up giving her kittens up for adoption and after her milk dried up, she became "wild" again and I was not able to get near her. Then, after I left and came back from vacation, she was her old self again and has been ever since, even through the spaying. Every day she gets friendlier and friendlier. She jumps up on to the couch, walks on my lap and lets me scratch her tummy. I hope to be able to pick her up soon.