On a 2015 trip to Nova Scotia, we visited a wharf where a colony of feral cats lives outside under difficult conditions, spending their days wandering through boulders, getting into scraps with sea birds, nursing their cuts and scrapes, and suffering scabby noses - the result of trying to maneuver through slippery, barnacle-encrusted rocks. Not an easy life during the day, and even much less so at night. Their faces reflect their plight of never being able to escape the salt that dries their skin. The Bay of Fundy is home to the world's highest tides, where the tidal bore pushes so much water in and out everyday that it's said to be as powerful as 8,000 train engines or 25 million horses. These cats live just a few feet from all that water and have little protection from the wind and waves and cold. They live a harsh life, even though a few local volunteers do all they can to care for them.
Finding the wharves is easy, but finding the cats requires more dedication. Driving out to the rocks and looking for the few shelter boxes made of barrels and scrap wood is a good place to start. Often, there's no sign of a cat, and it’s just a waiting game until one comes out. In 2015, we ran into the most magnificent creature with thick golden fur, albeit matted, blowing in the wind. He looked at us intently and let us photograph him at length while treats were retrieved from the RV as his reward. We saw a few other cats as well, but none were as captivating as this fellow.
After our return to Atlanta, I did some research and phoned the harbor master, who told me that an elderly man fed the cats daily — even in the midst of the frigid Nova Scotia winter. I wasn’t able to get much detail, although Michelle connected on Facebook with the local volunteer group after doing a little more digging. We returned to Nova Scotia in 2016 and made a special trip to the wharf, looking for our feline friend. Unfortunately, he could not be located, but remarkably, we saw another, younger cat who looked much like him. A few photos were allowed with treats once more the reward. More conversation with the locals led to a name - Goldie.
A couple of years passed, and we found ourselves back in our favorite place once again. This time, something special happened when we visited the wharf. We ran into an older man who spends his time there, contemplating life, and making a place the wharf cats call home. It was nothing more than an old fishing stage with the inside filled with anything he found interesting attached to the walls and floor and ceiling. Posters of celebrities like James Dean, pictures of his time spent in NY, a baseball cap collection from around the world that was given to him, cat beds, cubbies, blankets, and the like. It was his pilgrimage and a place for his friends. He was the kindly gentleman we’d heard about who made such a dedicated effort to ease the plight of the wharf cats.
We talked to him for a long time, and we told him about our passion for animals. We told him about the special cat we fell in love with in 2015, a cat named Goldie. When we mentioned the name, the man was stunned for a moment. "How did you know about Goldie?," he asked, his face turning, his eyes focusing, his ears listening. After telling him our story, he walked us out of the shelter to a small grave marker surrounded with the remains of an old wooden lobster trap. Inside of this small protective enclosure were plastic flowers - and Goldie. We were sorry for not having reconnected with our old friend before he passed, but in a way, we did. Knowing that Goldie had someone caring for him in the end meant something after all.
There were other cats on the wharf that day, one older, one shy, one friendly, one with a nastily skinned nose, one who kept to himself. Of course, there were photos and treats on that calm and sunny afternoon. We stayed in the area for a few days and returned several more times, and with each visit the cats became slightly less apprehensive, but never completely trusting…well, except the friendly one. Our experience with the wharf cats has been one of the best that we have ever had meeting animals in Nova Scotia on the Bay of Fundy.