JAKE AND JACKSON

I thought I'd have a quiet afternoon after a busy morning which had nothing to do with animals. You think I'd know better by now. Just before lunch I got a call from a lady who wanted an older cat. Usually it's kittens. I gave her Carol's number, emphasising that we had some lovely older cats, which we do. Look through earlier posts and you'll see plenty of photos of them.

About 2.00 I got a call from Carol that a kitten had been found by office workers near Hylton College on the north side of the river. I rang the place to check its location then picked up a cat carrier and set off in the van. I found the place okay and the kitten- which I'd thought might be feral- but wasn't and it was a kitten about four months old. I took it to Carol's where at one point I held it for over ten minutes and it barely moved, happy to be fussed over. While not in bad condition, Carol reckoned he'd been on his own for a few days. Here he is shortly after eating most of a sachet of food.

And here he is again.

He's a delightful little cat and I hope he gets a really good home.

Before I'd actually arrived Carol's the lady who had phoned up around midday asking about an older cat had already been and taken one which had only been with Carol for a couple of days and I'd never even seen it. Lucky cat. I wish all of them had that short a stay with us. Also, while I was at Carol's, a very nice couple came to look at Chloe's kittens and picked two to be  taken home in about another five weeks when they were old enough.

Normally my visits to Carol's are on the brief side as I just drop off or pick up cats or deliver cat food. Sometimes I'll spend a while in a shed making a fuss of the cats and taking some photos. This time, however, a spy of hers at Witherwack (a housing estate about a mile away) had told her about an idiot who'd bought a springer spaniel pup for her kids who had grown bored with it or it was too inconvenient to keep and she was going to give it to the first person who paid her £20.00 for it. Which turned out to be Animal Krackers, in this case, me. I had to hang around Carol's until the woman turned up whereupon Carol's spy would pick the dog up and meet me at the Bunnyhill Centre (and, yes, that is a real place and the new centre combines library, doctor's surgery, community centre, and other things I can't remember.

And that is what happened. Carol's spy turned out to be a good guy who keeps an eye on animal welfare on the estate. He's adopted several pets (including cats, dogs, and parrots), and regularly passes cats/kittens on to Carol. And sometimes a dog. This dog is an overgrown 8 month old puppy called Jackson (and when I learned that I decided to call the kitten Jake and the two names sound good together -euphonious?). Here's Jackson.

Jackson didn't have a collar so I just put him in the back of the van and crossed my fingers that he'd behave himself. Which he did. He stuck his head between the two seats and against my left arm. Sometimes as I turned the wheel he'd shove his head underneath my arm to position it between my arm and the steering wheel. Other than that, which was nothing really, he wasn't the slightest trouble.

He did get more excited when I got back to the shop and put a collar on him but he was just being friendly. He's a bit skittish, but that is in the nature of the breed, and very friendly. Andrea and I took him to the vets for a vaccination, where again he was no bother. Unlike the moron who blocked me in. From there to Ferryfarm Kennels where I showed him the hens wandering around but as they weren't either people or dogs he wasn't remotely interested. Mark who owns the kennels quickly assessed him and said he'd find a home very quickly.

Let's hope so.