"HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE MARIA?"

Don't know.

Don't care.

This is a cat rescuing blog not a tribute to Julie Andrews blog (though there wouldn't be anything wrong with that if it was as Julie is a marvellous talent and...)

Ahem.

The real title of this post is:

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Edward?

Here's Edward.

Despite my inadequate photos, he's really a very friendly cat, aged between 8 and 10, who loves cuddles. The problem is that he's a stray who hangs around a couple of streets off Villette Road and gets fed by three different families.

He's known to Andrea who got a call a couple of nights ago that he'd possibly broken his leg. She went round and eventually caught him, took him back to the shop and put him in a cage. The leg didn't look broken but he had damaged it.

Next morning around breakfast time when I'd normally be swimming but had slept in, I got a call from Susan asking me to take Edward to the vets which is what I did. This was my first encounter with him and hadn't heard of him before. His rear right leg had been knocked but there was no obvious damage, Louise the vet said. Edward accepted all her manipulations patiently and without trying to claw my face off as I held him still. Louise thought he might be in the early stages of arthritis.

He seemed such a nice cat I thought he might be a candidate for our re-homing centre and had Louise give him the first vaccination against cat flu. Possible Animal Krackers could pay for any arthritis-related vet treatment if someone adopted him. At the very least he'd be out of the cold and monitored in case the arthritis got worse and could then be treated. I said as much to Andrea when I brought him back.

The real problem is that he's used to being on the streets and absolutely hated being stuck in the cage but none of the three families who feed him can take him into their homes. Andrea said that the best option would be if at least one of them had a shed he could shelter in and some bedding he could curl up in.

There no easy answers and I can't help being worried about him especially if it proves to be a harsh winter.