Friday was a bad day for several reasons, but I'm only going to tell you about one of them. Okay, maybe a couple of others, we'll see.
It started around 5.00pm on Thursday, though I didn't realise it until nearly bedtime. Unknown to me, when I was carrying two large cardboard boxes through the front door, little Jack-Jack (a cat so nice I had to name him twice) was sneaking out, my view of him obscured by said boxes. Some time around ten I sussed that I hadn't seen him for a while and after a quick look round the house and not finding him came to the obvious conclusion. I called his name at the front door several times before I went to bed and got up at four and did the same.
Early next morning I was out distributing small notices around nearby houses giving brief details and including this photo-
I quickly got a call from a lady six doors up who thought he might be in her garden. It was a black cat with a small white patch with a very strong resemblance to Jack-Jack but it wasn't him.
Then I had to go out and about. First off to see Susan who was in bed (and still is at the time of writing) with what now looks like gastro-enteritis. I fed the cats, did some washing up, and loaded big friendly ginger Leo into a carrying case to take him into the vets. This was his second trip recently. Last time Wendy suspected he had fluid on the lungs and an overactive thyroid. This time she kept him in to give him an x-ray. When I called to pick him up late that afternoon, he'd been confirmed as having fluid on the lungs, an enlarged heart and an overactive thyroid and would be on three different kinds of pills twice a day for the rest of his life. What Wendy couldn't understand is how, given what was wrong with him, he appeared healthy and in good condition.
In between those two visits, the following happened-
Around twelve I had to go pick up two kittens (for one of the several reasons I'm omitting) and keep them until the next morning when Lynn, a fosterer, could take them. I confess they proved to be an absolute delight so I'm glad Lynn agreed to take them. A brother and sister (who don't get on) and just under six months old -when I rescued them I took them straight to Wendy's to be neutered and vaccinated- and both really pretty. Jake is the tabby, Jacqui is the white one with a thick black tail you can't see.
Both have silky soft fur, are inquisitive, friendly, lively, destructive, and delightful. I was having a bath this morning and at one point both were perched on the edge. They'll be a joy for whoever gets them and Lynn thinks she might have a home already for one of them.
Not long after I got a call from a lady who'd been visiting her sister a couple of doors up at teatime yesterday and had entertained this friendly little black cat who obviously had a home and was, they not unreasonably assumed, was just having a little wander. She'd put the details of Jack-Jack on Facebook. Mid-afternoon she rang again to say she'd been contacted by a friend of hers who lived a mile away and had found a friendly little black cat in their garden. They'd taken it to the PDSA where it was found to be microchipped and took it home while the PDSA contacted the chipping organisation to locate its owner. I went round just before going to collect Leo but not expecting it to be Jack-Jack. How the hell would a cat that had never been out (at least not where I live) end up a mile away?
And I'm still wondering that because it was Jack-Jack. After tormenting myself and fearing the worst since ten the previous evening, I was overwhelmed with relief and with gratitude to the lovely young couple who'd looked after him and made an immediate effort to find his owner, and the lady (young woman?) who put him on Facebook where the couple had seen him and put two and two together. I'm not used to being shown kindness by other people, usually it's the other way around (not a boast, that's just what I do, I help animals and people who own them or want them).
Jack-Jack is now settled back in his own home, though he still tried to sneak out again this morning but just stood still outside while I picked him up. He also seemed a bit disconcerted by the two strange kittens who'd appeared in his absence but they're gone now so that's okay and he's currently sleeping on the settee a few feet away.
As for the other two cats I'm supposedly fostering but actually keeping, well...
Fifi, the first, was always friendly but a little nervous about other cats and sleeps/sits on a cushion in the living room or in the window of my bookroom. She's recently taken to actually coming and sitting on my knee for a while.
And then there's (Namestilltobedecided) the two year old neutered pedigree British shorthair who is now legally mine as I gave the treasurer of Animal Krackers a cheque for a three figure sum (and I'm not including pennies) for him. After a week he still runs away from me but this is a tease. If I catch him in the bathroom (he follows me in) and shut the door, he rolls over and purrs loudly as I stroke him and give him cuddles. Only a few minutes ago, on the tiled part of the kitchen, he did the same. (I wonder if it's the tiles?) He spends a lot of time in the book room with Fifi whom he seems comfortable with.
Bye.
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