SO, WHAT IS A CAT?

[Thomo]

Thank you Gloria. When cats are not happy with their lot, its amazing the instinct they have for finding somewhere better. My life has seen many such things, even as a small boy, kittens would follow me home. There is one thing about stray cats that sets them apart in my experience, and thats the amount of affection they can give, a gift to be treasured.

[Thomo]

For a moment last night we thought we had found the owner of our visitor (Mabel) but not so. At 5 o,clock our cats were having a bit of sun in the front garden, Molly was stood behind what we thought was our Lucy and having a cautious sniff at her, Lucy is all Black with White whiskers. This one stood up and turned around, four White paws and a White blaze under the chin, exactly like old Bobby, it saw us and jumped over the gate, Thankfully our cats never try this as the road outside is lethal to people let alone animals (see Barlick Traffic Madness). It went round the corner and stopped and I got a good look at it, a beautiful little cat in top condition. It made its way along the hedge around our car and straight to back gate. my reaction "Oh Heck" another one, but it went off between the houses and disappeared, not been back since. Our visitor (Mabel) is still with us so I have just made improvements to her environment, a better bed with added comfort and protection, thats where she is right now, we buy our cat litter in large bags and have some in a bucket for ready use, she had used this last night, this has just been replaced with a covered litter tray that we had spare. The next job is to cut a suitable sized hole in one of the bottom door panels and shield it, then we can keep the door shut. Since last Sunday it as been wedged open just enough for her access, but last night the rain had driven in and soaked the centre mat, later we will add a cat flap. Letting her into the house is another matter, she is much younger than our own cats, much bigger and very boisterous, and we already have one traumatised by her appearance at the same time as the cat transporter on Tuesday. The next job today is get a better pic, add some text and get it displayed around the town. If this proves to be unproductive she will have to visit the Vets to be checked out.

[Thomo]

This is not being a good week, little Lucy, mentioned in my last post and an earlier one, is now hospitalised at Colne. What was concern has now turned into serious worry, this as gone from whats wrong to critical in just over one hour, I feel kicked and tired, and tired of being kicked.

[Gloria]

Oh I am sorry Thomo. one of the "not nice" that comes with animals.

[Thomo]

The Vet rang at eight tonight, Lucy is on a drip and has had tests done, the results will be back tomorrow morning, there is hope yet if she can just get through tonight. Thank you for your post, we both feel a little raw at present. The visitor (Mabel) is fast asleep in her new bed.

[Wendyf]

Troubles always seems to come at once with animals. Fingers crossed that she has made it through Thomo.

[Big Kev]

Just an experiment to produce a "Big Kev" front page

[Thomo]

She made it through the night Wendy, but I had my last 15 minutes with her this morning. I am beginning to feel like the grim reaper.

LUCY 12 years and 9 months.

[Pluggy]

Commiserations Thomo. Never a good experience.

[Whyperion]

On a lighter note Mother's cat ( in fairly good health , furballs excepted ) , seems to be a walking demand for food most of the time - except when I have to give it a fuss or throw things for it to chase and sometime retrieve. Anyway it knows that I keep his cat treats lidded on the lounge table , he has about 8 on a plate at whatever time I wake up , and then 6 more at 10.00am scattered on the rug. Evenings if he hears me opening the fridge then he has to have half a slice of cooked turkey or chicken dependent on whats open. Sometimes he feels he deserves more treats he will jump up on the table and knock a box down in the hope the lid will come off when it hits the floor, he is miffed when the lid is too secure. He also miaows at me loudly to give him a fuss ( using the handle end of a brush ). He also thinks that any sound of me trying to open my food ( a reduced packet of Warburtons Sandwich Thins have so far defeated me ) is the same sound as me opening his food and he will come up to me to investigate.

I suppose as a flat cat that doesn't go out at least it keeps him alert.


Finally at 9pm he shifts mother from her normal chair in order to change his routine from sleeping on the bed during day to sleeping on the chair during the night,

[Whyperion]

The wife's first cat , an Essex streetwise stray from a Dagenham car park arrived when her co-teacher friend brought her round to our flat. She had already terrorised the friends pair of strutting male toms and remained a hater of most cats through her life, needing to be locked in one room when mum used to cat sit for us to avoid mothers then cat as they would fight quite badly. Her favourite spot other than the semi soft arms of the sofa , the top of the living room door ( accessed by climbing up the door frame ) was the living room window sill, in shaded sun she would watch the trains on the railway go by ( at Christmas when there were no trains she was most confused ) , and when I drove into the car park which the window overlooked she would jump down and run to the front door to await me coming in.

Her favorite game was to launch herself from the top of the wardrobe onto the lump hidden under the duvet , all four legs complete with claws out for a grabbed landing. Of course the lump in the bed was me, I still have one of the scars. Actually that may not have been the favourite game , since the flat was small we had a small artificial Christmas tree, decorated with a number of hanging baubles ( fine cotton wound around a cardboard core forming a sort of doh-decahedron shape ). She discovered that patting the baubles caused them to amusingly swing, flicking a claw out she could catch hold of the cotton wrapping and pull one with its tiny hanger off the end of a branch , just avoiding the weighted base over-toppling. With bauble on floor a game of chase football could commence , and the unwinding cotton made double the fun. As they were not totally round the noisy bouncing over the tiled kitchen floor was even more fun, and they spun off the skirting boards providing plenty of catching practice. By new year about 4 of the 12 baubles had become her playthings, and the christmas present fluffy mouse toy remained ignored.

When we moved to a small house she decided that life at ground level meant she could go out , so after wandering off for about 18 hours - we thought she had walked back to the flat- she returned for food and then settled down to normal female territory of about 3 rear gardens in each direction. Afternoons settled down to a routine of as she went out the back door a very fluffy ginger and white would pass at a respectable distance in the garden and come in the back door for a quick feed ( and if we let it a wander upstairs to sleep on the bed ).

We moved again to be a bit closer to the older in-laws, and again she explored the new area before her new afternoon wander up to the stables at the back of the house.

One day next door neighbour - whom had a Jack Russell came and knocked , 'Its about your cat' expecting an apology from him that the dog had worried or bitten the cat I was prepared to forgive as the dog wouldn't know any better when he was in his own garden ( well he did trot into ours too ). ' She has got my dog penned up in a corner and wont let him come out ' Indeed any movement the dog tried to make was met with noise , fur and clawed paws and the poor little dog was terrified. We managed to pick her up and bring her indoors.

Evenings the cat would force father-in-law from the chair by the fire by climbing on the back and then nosing her way down his back pushing him out of the chair. Curl up time and do not disturb till supper.

Unless the back door was locked at both houses the cat would let herself in , or out , by jumping up and swinging on the door handle until the door flipped open , a trick she originally learnt from the kitchen, bathroom , bedroom and lounge doors in the flat. The internal house doors defeated her as they had knobs not latch handles.

Mother-In-Law taught the cat english , ' Fish' and 'Chick-Chick' being the main words. When the cat came in from outside if she had been walking in the veg beds Grandma would say ' you've got dirty paws ' cat would then sit down and wash in the kitchen- just her paws to bring them back to shiny white.

After cat died ( came in one day looking unwell and just lost the spark to live after about 15 years ) a short while later the current white and black one turned up in the house gardens , originally shared with a neighbour somehow she has ended up with us.

Present Day cat , pictured when we had a garden in the Sunny part of West Yorkshire

[Thomo]

What a wonderful story Ian, and well told. It is almost a week since Mabel (visitor) turned up here, it was not a good time as it was a very bad week from a cat point of view. She has settled into her present home, this gives her the back yard and beyond. Last night our cats were all in, so with the front door shut I opened the top yard door and let her see the garden, this she obviously enjoyed. We have to be careful yet for several reasons, our cats are not young and smaller than she, they also know that something bad has just happened and are a bit insecure, not a good time to introduce a large vociferous new animal. Mabel appears clean and healthy and is very determined, she has decided that she is staying. It is now clear that she has been ill treated and recently possibly kicked, if we approach her the wrong way, there are signs of aggression. She will have to be patient, this is not going to happen overnight.

[Thomo]

After the stresses of last week I awoke yesterday feeling like a "spent force" my body went into auto and shut down all non essential functions, a pleasant hour with Panbiker on BWMG matters in the Fountain Inn lifted it a little, last night I couldn't face one glass of wine let alone several, Mabel took a back seat during all of this. In the past week Mabel has used nearly all of a cats ploys to gain access to the house, trying to knock the back door down, singing on the bathroom window sill, yesterday for my wife's benefit rolling over and looking cute. Today its pathos, so while our cats are indoors I have given her unrestricted access to the front garden, she hasn't clocked yet that the side bay window sills are less than three feet up and give an unrestricted view of the lounge, all she needs to do now is be patient and meet our cats through glass, I think she may become permanent, the Wife is beginning to soften.

Mabel on Saturday:-

[Pluggy]

Strays and badly cared for cats will latch on to cat friendly people, a fact of life. 'Charlie' latched onto us because his owner neglected him, unfortunately his neglect had gone too far and we had to have him destroyed when he came officially into our care. Sad story....

[Thomo]

I spoke earlier of another cat that had appeared in the garden, this morning after being tipped off by a neighbour I matched it to a "missing cat" poster in the hairdressers shop window on Gisburn Rd. I now have the cats name and the owners phone number, first call not connected. Last night this cat "Gizzi" turned up again and played in the front garden with Mabel, it was a joy to watch. It is a beautiful young cat about one year old, the owners have moved house and then a baby came on the scene, this is the reason given for its disappearance. It will probably come again as it knows there is food available outside. Here is Gizzi:-



After he left by the back gate, Mabel was watching the gate intensely and we could see that there was something else on the other side, not Gizzi, this was a young hedgehog trying to get in!!

[Gloria]

The local animal homeless certainly know you are an animal person, you must be top of the grapevine.

[Thomo]

I have just made contact with the assumed owner who is at present at work, and I am not impressed, it was like talking to a wall, no sounds of relief at all. The previous address was off Fernbank Ave, they are now off Bank St. He also seemed disinclined to make any input at all, "there is another stray cat in that area (Fernbank) that looks just like ours", ours has a tiny white spot on the side of his nose" so has this one! So this evening I am going to take him the pics that I have, and if I don't like what I see, then there will be a big re-think. My great worry at the moment is that one small eager cat versus the manic traffic here is an unequal contest. The bottom line here is the cats future welfare and I put this above whatever feelings the pressumed owners have. The cat looks much healthier now than it does on the lost poster.

[Gloria]

Some people beggar belief, why on earth do they have animals? I don't think I would even go round with a photo, if he cared in any way he would be round at yours now.

[Thomo]

My sentiments exactly Gloria, I will take the pics to them, and that just may be all they get, if they want the cat they will have to work very hard at it, I can spot a bad environment in seconds. But I will have done the proper thing. From our point of view, we both fell in love with it last night, it is so much like the Bobby we lost, only younger. integrating Mable into the family is not going to be easy, another one would double the problem. But problems are meant to be surmounted, both animals will need to be checked and I am fairly sure Gizzi will not have been neutered, last weeks Vets bill was twice my Naval pension and we have a limited income, the bit that really chews me up is this, "If we were on benefits there would not be a problem" we could get help. Fear not however the Navy was ever resourceful.

[Thomo]

I have printed off the pics, and then I sat with a glass of wine and thought about this and what Gloria said, and drew a few conclusions which are:- 1. Its the Wifes Birthday today and I have better things to do than run around after someone I do not know, and we have family members coming. 2. When the Wife gets home and hears what has happened, she may well determine the little cats future which will be an end to the matter! 3. Last night whilst we were watching it play and wondering what its name was, she said this "How about BOBBYTWO"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wendyf]

Isn't it wonderful, almost as if the cats know there is a gap to be filled. We have a Tinkytwo, so I think Bobbytwo is a fine name!

[Gloria]

Oooh me thinks Bobbytwo it is going to be.

[Thomo]

We will know shortly, Wifey will be home within the next 25 minutes. Meanwhile Mabels progress has just gone a step further, our cats are all in so I have opened the side gate to the front garden, she has found the lounge front window sill and has come face to face with Ellie and Evie, through the glass of course, there was no animosity, just plenty of curiosity. A step nearer.

[Gloria]

I think it is fascinating watching animal behaviour.

[Whyperion]

Our rather territorial cat ( she always fought the local cats in our previous location despite having the normal 3 gardens wide area to herself and the whole of a muddy stream , nettled wild area a good 80 yards x 200 yards to share ( we had plenty of mice brought in ). The pair of cats on the far side of the road always thought our accessway to the rear wild area the quickest route from home ( well it was ), but our cat did not take too lightly to their use of 'her' driveway. Now she has to share a smaller only paved area , which the local tabbies merge into the stonework causing one to miss seeing them at first glance , but she still manages to hiss and growl through the double glazed windows to next door's cat.