Happy Tail: Sage (formerly Duffy)
“When fostering a difficult cat, you really have to hang on to the little victories and improvements. Even eye contact or a bit of curiosity is very rewarding and important.”
So says Chloe, speaking of Duffy, her “proudest foster baby” of the nine or so cats she has cared for over the years and the one Chloe once feared might be unadoptable. Happily, the tiny Tortie later named Sage by her forever home proved Chloe wrong, along the way confirming that patience and persistence bring outsize rewards when socializing former street cats.
Duffy’s story as we know it began in winter 2023 when she gave birth to a litter of four kittens in a Dufferin and Eglinton–area backyard belonging to a kind but overwhelmed caretaker. An email to ACR’s feral/stray community outreach line for help brought dedicated trapper Lori to the site.
“It was mid-February, so the caretaker was very concerned about the babies and the frigid weather,” Lori recalls. “We began by trap-training Duffy so she’d comfortably enter a box trap for food. Once we had her secured, we were able to retrieve her kittens from their nest inside a Toronto Street Cats shelter.”
Mama and her two-week-old babies initially stayed with Lori. “Then the caretaker contacted me in early March about another tiny, younger kitten who had appeared alone under her porch. After a short isolation period, we introduced the kitten to Duffy. She accepted and cared for him as though he were her own. She proved to be a devoted, protective mom.”
After they were weaned, Duffy’s kittens went into ACR adoption and skittish Duffy was placed with Chloe, where she would ultimately stay for a year, Chloe’s longest-ever foster.
Duffy “hid behind the toilet for two or three months. I couldn’t get her to come out or get used to me. She would twitch at any movement, however small,” Chloe says. “I really thought she was unsuited for adoption as I had made zero progress.”
Enter ACR cat behaviourist Gillian, who armed Chloe with useful tips for getting the cat to engage. A turning point came two months later, when Chloe was in bed, lights out, and about to go to sleep. “I felt a presence in my doorway. Duffy was standing there staring at me and I thought, ‘OK, she is curious about me.’”
From there, things progressed slowly but measurably.
Meantime, Olivia and her partner Kelly were longing for a cat to take the place of Kelly’s family cat that joined them when they first moved in together but eventually returned to the family home. Olivia, already an ACR follower, spotted Duffy’s profile on the adoption web page.
“I wanted the challenge of bringing out a cat’s personality. I didn’t want something easy,” Olivia recalls. “I saw Duffy’s picture on the website, read her bio, and immediately fell in love. Everything about her resonated with me. She was newly posted, so I told Kelly that we had to meet the cat right away. Chloe told me I was the first person to inquire about her.”
Both Chloe and Olivia acknowledged the assignment: Duffy needed a quiet home with very patient carers sympathetic to her challenging transition indoors. And both were optimistic that Duffy’s outcome could be — would be — tremendous if given the chance. Prescient assumption.
Says Olivia, “When Chloe first brought Duffy over, she immediately hid under the bed. But that same night she came out and sat on the windowsill. We couldn’t approach her — she would hiss — but she was out. She used her litterbox right away and I heard her eating and playing with toys that first night. That was really encouraging given her history.”
Olivia confirms there has been a sea change in the cat’s personality since her May 2024 adoption. “She is now so open and playful and affectionate compared to how she was before,” she says, adding that she and Kelly picked the name Sage because, “He and I are both kind of hippies,” she laughs. “We like nature and flowers, and we thought it suited her.
“Kelly and I have given Sage so much love and provided her with a safe place. You can see how happy she is. She is my sweet and spicy kitty. Also spunky, shy, very talkative, and playful. And she is the prettiest cat I’ve ever seen. And I’m not just saying that out of bias,” Olivia chuckles. “It’s true.”
-Kim Hughes