Tarantula
History and Lore
Tarantula (more frequently referred to as Tara) was not a cat known to live amongst the well documented cats of The Fence Subcolony until late June 2022. A few weeks prior an employee of a nearby building called over to Apo informing him that they had seen kittens nearby. However, the employee did not follow up and Apo assumed that they had meant kittens within their home. Around a month later, Apoinsettia would be streaming where he would notice a mom and kittens on a ramp by an abandoned storage crate and share with Twitch chat.
This would prompt a rescue mission to remove Tarantula's kittens to have them socialized and adopted out, due to their young age, however a series of events would make the trapping experience the most difficult the channel had seen. The first of these events would be the fact that the kittens mother, Tarantula, would enter the trap before her kittens, repeating the same process as Boo.
When a mother cat is trapped, releasing them almost assures that cat may never be trapped again, leading to a serious risk of Tarantula having multiple litters. With that knowledge, Apo would take Tarantula in to be spayed, and would hold her from the kittens for 48 hours. Luckily, the kittens were weaned onto wet food.
Tarantula would be denied by the clinic that was to do a low cost spay on her due to high capacity, and would take three days off, leaving Apo to wait longer, but still trapping for the kittens every night. Tarantula eventually would be spayed and would be in the recovery process, whilst Apo would trap three of the four kittens, leading to a quick reunion of the family before Tarantula would be returned due to being feral and preferring a life outdoors. It is worth nothing that Tara was never aggressive or defensive, but shy and depressed.
Tarantula would be released back and is still an active member of the Alley colony despite being the shyest. Sadly, Tarantula herself would return to call the crate her mom rather than the rest of the colony, which is a concern due to the high flea population that targeted Apo and the Fleababies, but she has stayed in good health and is due for routine flea medications.
Personality
Tarantula is arguably the shyest cat in the Fence subcolony within the Alley. She stays within her crate and when noticed immediately runs into hiding. Even when food is left out for her away from the other cats, she rarely comes out until the area is completely cleared. When indoors, it was a fear of Apo's that she would be feral and defensive, but Tarantula was quite calm and even able to be pet. They had become scared, depressed, and frightened, and it was decided it would be much better for her to be TNR, as traditional with the cats on the channel, leading her to be the fourth cat the channel had TNR'd.
Appearance
Tarantula is a torbie, a mix of tortoiseshell coloring and tabby patterns, more commonly known as a tabby with orange freckles. Her freckles of color are very light and barely noticeable, and is very similar in appearance to her daughter Doxycycline.
