Well, this is embarrassing

[spinbaby]

I went trapping last night and in no time had a large fluffy cat thrashing in my trap. I glanced at it and, because it was gray and pale brown, decided it was a female dilute tortie. I covered her and placed the trap in the garage for the pre-dawn trip to have her spayed.

This afternoon at pickup, I learned that “she” had been, in fact, not a dilute tortie, but a gray tomcat covered in brown dirt. He was now a very angry neutered cat.

I had named him Mabel.

[multigraincracker]

1. When I lived in Ohio, the guy across the street

was an idiot. Had a Confederate flag flying. Anyway he had a Tom cat that was the terror of our block. Then one day the cat settled down and just slept in his driveway. The lady next door had trapped his and had his nuggies cut off. She ask me not to tell him.

[CountAllVotes]

2. You could rename him Abel

Like in Cain and Abel ???

[GeoWilliam750]

7. Perhaps instead, "UnAbel"

[RockRaven]

3. "Maple" could be a gender-neutral cat name...

or go with "May Bull" (when you trapped him plus ironic reference to what happened next)

[tclambert]

4. Is this what your cat trap looked like?

[Generic Brad]

5. Gender is fluid

Stick with Mable.

[a kennedy]

6. This just made me laugh......."He was now a very angry neutered cat." 🤣 🤣 🤣

[world wide wally]

8. I named one of our chickens "Mable"

When she got older, she started crowing and I found out she was in fact a rooster.
I changed his name to Clark "Gable"

[LudwigPastorius]

9. Tom the Atom Bomb is now...

more like a cap gun.

Good on you for helping to keep more hungry, unwanted kittehs from being born.

[bearssoapbox]

10. My youngest son found 2 very young kittens

One didn't make it and he named the survivor "Herbie" because he had recently seen the movie.

Herbie was found and named back in 1983.

She was a gray tiger male that lived 21 years.

[BobTheSubgenius]

11. Are you the one that's embarrassed?

There's a tomcat going through life named Mabel.

[wnylib]

12. A friend found a ginger kitten huddled under

her car in the winter. She took it in, but her husband said it appeared to be pregnant and he didn't want to deal with kittens. My cat had passed away several months before that, so they asked if I wanted the ginger stray. I agreed to take it.

The "pregnant female" kitten had small but visible testicles that were beginning to descend, indicating that he was around 5 to 6 months old. The "pregnant" belly was actually a distension caused by an infestation of worms, very visible in his litter. After he was cleaned up, the worms were cleared up, and he was on a nutritious cat food, he became a beautiful trim and fit ginger tom cat with a white bib and white socks. Very affectionate and appreciative of being healed and cared for. And definitely male. Named him Leo.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. What a wonderful story.

Thank you for sharing.

[wnylib]

15. When I realized that Leo was actually a young male

with worms, I was amazed that my friend and her husband had mistaken him for a pregnant female. They apparently had little experience with stray cats. Distended bellies in kittens is a common symptom of worms in strays. So are vomiting and diarrhea. So, despite the fact that the testicles were visible, although small, they compared the full belly and vomiting to human symptoms of pregnancy.

Their loss and my gain. He was the sweetest, most affectionate cat I ever had. I nicknamed him Mr. Love because he never met a living being, animal or human, that he didn't like.

[eppur_se_muova]

13. I was unsure of the gender of my feral kittens when I trapped them.

Itty bitty kitty genitalia don't show well when buried in fuzz.

So I aimed for gender-neutral or confused names. "Caramel" is a male, with orange and white fur. "Ralph" is named after "Ralph Monroe", one of the Monroe "brothers" on Green Acres. Mary Grace Canfield, the actress who played the role, died the weekend I took Ralphie Girl to the vet for pre-adoption shots and spaying. She didn't actually like the role, but I liked the gender confusion.

Ralph, as it turns out, ralphs a lot, so it sorta-kinda works.

Sadly, I only rescued two of the original five. Still makes me sad. Two half-siblings were adopted by the nice "Cat Ladies" of Jackson, TN.