Sightings of the Coors Field cat had been happening around the baseball stadium in Denver for years before she was eventually caught.
A Twitter account devoted to the feline was set up in 2019 which posts about the sightings of Socks and her feline friends.
Socks the cat usually hung around the back of the stadium and around the parking lot, and was even spotted near the home plate where she once did her “business”.
People began to have a real affinity for Socks and started to equate sightings of her with good luck for upcoming games.
As Socks became more popular, people started wondering how she was, and whether she was being looked after.
That’s when Jenni Leigh stepped in.
To catch a cat
Jenni Leigh is a local kitten rescuer and Trap Neuter Return (TNR) advocate in Denver, Colorado, where the baseball stadium is located.
She took it upon herself to trap the cat, find out whether it was neutered/spayed, and get a sense of her health.
Socks was caught without too much fuss and brought to a vet clinic the next day for assessment.
The Coors field cat was confirmed to be female and promptly spayed, but unfortunately, a tumor was found in her mammary gland.
She needed emergency surgery.
Operation Socks
Pets that have not been spayed or neutered are at increased risk of cancer, with unspayed female cats being more likely to get breast cancer as they age.
Usually, a stray or feral cat who is found to have a tumor would not be operated on.
Leigh spoke to The Denver Post back in 2021 and explained that as unfortunate as this is, consistent medical care for stray and feral cats can’t be counted on, and so most of the time they are euthanized.
However, this was the Coors Field cat, who had so many people looking out for her, so the vet agreed to go ahead and remove the tumor to find out if Sock’s tumor was cancerous.
After two weeks of waiting, it turned out that Socks did not have cancer!
The tumor was removed, and Socks was given the all-clear to return to her stadium home.
Socks is now living the good life due to her increased fame and has several caretakers that look after her and her feline friends at the stadium.