Shortly before his mutation Raphael was, however separated from his family, by the attack of a hungry street cat. In the year after his mutation he eked out a miserable existence as a vagrant on the streets of New York City without a memory of his life before his transformation, until he was befriended by Casey Jones and soon after he found his family again. In the course of his adventures with his family he also built a close relationship with the mutant fox Alopex, especially because the two are perhaps too similar in temperament and life situation.