Meet Jack!

 He is super affectionate and has not so much as taken out his claws despite me continuously brushing him and removing almost half of his coat (the pre-summer malt!) and being terrified in his new environment.

He has been with me for a week now, and I have followed all of the guidelines for bringing a new cat home:

(1) I bought a cat carrier for transporting him home and put a soft blanket in it. They recommend that you take a blanket from their old home which will help them to feel more comfortable to put inside, but Jack's previous owners didn't have one. Jack was pretty scared on the ride home, he even peed in his carrier :(

(2) When we arrived home, I closed Jack in the laundry with his cat carrier, food, water and litter tray. I put out the same food and kitty litter that he is used to which is recommended to minimise the already huge number of changes.

(3) I left him alone for an hour or so and then visited Jack regularily in his laundry cave, and gave him plenty of attention. He ate a little bit of his food and used the litter tray on that first night, which made me feel better.

(4) On the evening of day 2, I gave Jack a really good brush and he loved that. I continued showering plenty of attention on him but always in his laundry area.

(5) By day 4, I decided to see if Jack wanted to come out so I left the laundry door open when I got home in the evening. He wouldn't come out despite being coaxed, but stood at the door looking out.

(6) On the evening of day 5, Jack was still too timid to leave the laundry. I picked him up and sat on the sofa with him, where he promptly fell asleep on my lap and enjoyed lots of stroking. After that he ran straight back into the laundry, but it was the start of him becoming more confident.

(7) Days 6 and 7 were the weekend, so I was home most of the day and left the laundry door open. By the evening of day 7, Jack was exploring the house and had come and laid on my bed etc. He was confident around me but remained terrified of my housemate.

(8) On days 8 and 9, Jack would come out of the laundry and explore the house every morning before I left for work and every evening until it was bedtime. I tried leaving him out at night (he still had access to his laundry if he wanted) but he came in to my bedroom and meowed for attention at 1am, at which point he was promptly relegated back to the laundry (LOL)...

(9) On the evening of day 9, I put a collar on Jack. He is not used to wearing one and he was VERY UPSET with me!! I took the bell off so that the sound wouldn't scare him, but the next morning the collar had been torn and chewed, so he had obviously been working on it throughout the night. Lucky I have started getting him used to a collar well before it's time to let him venture outside!

(10) It has now been almost three weeks since Jack arrived, and I think it's time to start letting him outside. He is very confident now and seems to want to explore. We have had some minor issues - him breaking some ornaments and my antique lamp, oh and there is the meowing at night... but overall things are going well and he's super cuddly :-)

In Search of a Kitty Cat

I have decided to get a cat. This is partly brought on by loneliness (I broke up with my boyfriend about a month ago). I have wanted a dog for a long time as I am definitely more of a dog person than a cat person. Then my Aunty, Uncle and cousins went away for a weekend and left their dog with me to look after. It completely put me off the idea of getting a dog. Their little mutt kept me awake all night with its barking, whining and when I eventually let it inside, jumping all over me on my bed and running around the house like a crazy monster. It put into perspective how high maintenance dogs are, and I only have a smallish courtyard which just wouldn't be fair. I also work long hours, and while I would walk the dog every day, it would spend a lot of time alone.

My first stop was Gumtree, the online classifieds site. It is mind blowing how many cats there are up for adoption, and the amount of irresponsible pet owners. A common statement is "We're moving so we need to find a new home for our cat". Another is "We aren't allowed pets at our new rental". Surely you shouldn't get a cat if you are likely to need to get rid of it in the near future!? People treat them like toys that can be disposed of.

There are also a number of cats that haven't been desexed or vaccinated and people giving away kittens because their cat just had a litter. No wonder so many cats are put down every year by cat havens!

I first settled on a moggy called Felix (pictured above). According to the owner, he is one year old and timid yet affectionate. He has been an inside cat but is vaccinated and desexed (which ticks boxes for me!). He came with a cat scratcher, food, litter, litter box, bed, carry case etc meaning I wouldn't have to buy accessories to begin with (another tick!).

Unfortunately, over a 3 week period Felix's owner cancelled my visit 3 times at the last minute. She lives an hour away, so each time I had put aside an afternoon for travel time etc, worked myself up into excitement and was then sorely dissapointed when she cancelled (on all 3 occasions, she cancelled literally as I was leaving the house or work). The first time her son had gastro apparently, the next time she had to work late and the third time her son had been hospitalised due to an asthma attack. She assured me that her partner would be home all week and I could come any time I wanted (4th time lucky) but then suddenly became prescriptive and said I could only come on a Thursday night. At that point I snapped inside, and gave up on this annoying woman and her poor kitty. Seriously, thanks for messing me around! Something tells me that she's a nutter and not genuine.

Luckily, there are plenty of other cats wanting a loving home. At the moment I am choosing between Chandler and Jack, both 2 years old. I am leaning towards Chandler, although of course I'll want to meet him first :-)

Sick Pets & Lack of Sleep

On Monday our dog had to have an operation. We picked her up at about 6pm after she had the operation at 4:30pm- and she was still totally out of it from the anesthetic. All evening she was walking around crying/whining, she was restless and wouldn't lie down, tripped over her own feet, almost walked into walls, swayed and her back legs were shaking. It was so sad and scary to watch.

I kept trying to take her outside to go to the bathroom and finally succeeded in getting her to do her business at about 11:30pm. She spent the night pacing around and whining, and when she had somewhat recovered she started barking. My poor sister had to sleep on a mattress downstairs with her like this, as it was the only way to calm her down:

In short, she has kept us both up the past 2 nights and I am now exhausted. She was obviously feeling better last night because she went and slept on the couch, which she absolutely knows she is not allowed to do.

She's not a young dog, and I think this episode made us all think about what will happen when the inevitable happens... Pets bring so much joy to our lives, but the flipside is that they are then sorely missed.

I hope you're all having a good week. I haven't forgotten to draw the winners of my latest giveaway (which ended almost 2 weeks ago)... well I did forget, but now I've remembered and I just need to find the time :-)