Tomcats

The Big Tom Colony sounds like a rock band (remember Big Head Todd?) or maybe a nudist camp, but it's actually a colony of feral cats named for Abo's Pizza businessman Tom Smathers, or "Big Tom '' as he is locally known.

Niwot residents have known Big Tom for 24 years as the former owner of Abo's in Niwot. Nowadays you can catch a glimpse of Smathers running his outdoor catering business or Abo's Pizza in North Boulder. His catering business, Abo's Special Events & Catering, provides pizza from the unique mobile pizza oven at outdoor events such as Rock 'n Rails.

Making his life busier and perhaps giving it special purpose, Smathers has been caring for a feral cat colony for over a year. The colony's whereabouts are known only to Big Tom.

Given the secrecy, Smathers seemed genuinely surprised to be talking about his colony, before he realized his Facebook friends might have leaked his pet project.

The Big Tom colony is hidden from sight and that's the way he wants it. Today, it's a cold, wet spring day, having rained through the night. We arrive at 7:00 a.m. and get to work.

Smathers cares about these cats and sees them several times a day. "There are three males and a female which we've been able to catch and return here," he said. "There's another female we're trying to catch. She's the mother of the two kittens."

Smathers described the situation playing out before us, "Well, there's Little Blackie, he's the explorer, venturing out more than the others. I come down here during the day to check on them quite a bit. I notice they are creative in how they move around to not get noticed. They use their cat condos we built them."

Smathers is explaining the homemade structures the cats use for refuge. There are Igloo coolers with little holes cut into the plastic in the front and back for entrance and exit. These coolers are filled with straw. There are cat climbing structures and other crates used for sleeping quarters.

"When they go places, they go from the cat condos to under a structure to dart underneath another structure and finally to roam free and catch mice out in the fields," he says. Smathers is an early riser. He visits the cat colony before heading out to manage his Abo's business for the day.

Smathers has everything he needs to feed and water the colony. Setting out a mixture of wet and dry foods and replacing the water with fresh water is a routine he's very comfortable with. Each day Smathers feeds and checks on the cats and says he learned how to care for them from Longmont Friends of Feral & Abandoned Cats (LFFAC). LFFAC is a Longmont group that helps abandoned and feral cats and uses the humane practice of Trap-Neuter-Return.

"They just seem to coexist and get along and survive here together," he said. "A couple of them have disappeared. I'm guessing they found a different colony or maybe didn't make it. I've been doing this full time for a year now. For years we were leaving water out for them because we noticed they would come around and drink it. Then I met the LFFAC and learned more about how to care for them and how to trap them so that they can be neutered and returned to the colony. It's a great group of people."

The group has several programs. In addition to Trap-Neuter-Return, LFFAC has a foster program, an adoption program, a feline education program and a program to teach colony management.

"Right now, we're trying to catch the one that's under that box there," Smathers explains. "We want to catch her so we can get her spayed, get her shots and clip her ear."

Smathers explains the treatment they get. "The cats get rabies, distemper shots and are neutered or spayed and they get a little notch in their ear so it's easy to see that they've been vaccinated. We don't want to trap the wrong one or one which has already been neutered, so we use drop traps sometimes, and quickly blanket them to calm them. Next, they are driven to the Humane Society for treatment. They're still groggy when taken back and placed into the cat condos before they wake up.

"When that little black one's mom comes around the corner you can see she's all business," Smathers says. "She's here for the food and not much else. She doesn't share her food and doesn't like to be out in the light, she's constantly watching for predators."

While watching the cats interact from the cover of Smathers' van, we notice a short cat darting around from behind the pallets. "He looks like a cat corgi," Smathers laughs, as the cat is quick and agile on very short legs. "The black one is named Midnight Star. He has a little white star on him, he'll let me pick him up."

Looking at Smathers as the light peaks out of the clouds, it's easy to see the cats are not the only ones benefiting from the connection.