20 Sep

Catbert – a new cat

Got a new cat.

I had to go to town today to visit my doc. On the way, we passed a garden where we had noticed some kittens before. There was a sign up offering the kittens to a good home. Bronwyn asked me if it’d be okay, so we went in, and Bronwyn asked for them to keep aside the last kitten.

Turns out the couple offering the kittens were some people that had been talking to me professionally over a year ago about a potential web development idea. It was a fascinating idea aimed at transcriptionists. I’m sorry we didn’t get the contract, as it was very very interesting to me.

Anyway – we carried on and did our round of doctors and pharmacies.

On the way home, it was damned cold, and had started lashing down rain (you don’t need a supercomputer to predict weather in Ireland!), so we were worried about how to bring the kitten back home – we do not have transportation, so would have been carrying it.

Turns out we needn’t have worried. When we knocked in to pick up the cat, they asked to let them bring it on over later, as the kitten belonged to the youngest daughter, who wanted to say goodbye.

We gave directions and went on our way.

The cat arrived at about half five, and we went out to say hello.

Patsy, our red setter, was being more energetic than usual, so we had to chain her down.

We talked to the kitten’s owners for a while, showing them our own animals.

When it was time to let go, the daughter handed me the cat, who she hadn’t named yet, and they got into their car.

Immediately, Patsy got loose from her short chain!

She jumped up on me, and the cat jumped out of my hands and into the bushes we have for fencing.

I shortened her chain again, and ran off into the next garden to “cut ’em off at the pass” – in my slippers, in long grass, after a heavy rain.

The owners were probably bemused and wonderin what they’d let the kitten in for as they watched me run around like a scarecrow trying to catch it!

The cat was crawling through the hedge, being followed closely by one of my other cats, who was sniffing it suspiciously.

I knew that the kitten would avoid capture if it knew I was trying to catch it, so I snuck my hand in behind it and held it’s tail!

I know that’s not what cats like, so I brought it out as quickly as possible and went to hold it more comfortably by the scruff of it’s neck (security was important!).

Immediately, I knew that was a bad idea! The cat attacked my hands, biting the fingers and clawing chunks of flesh out of the palm. I got the picture, removed my hand from its vicinity and let it vent its anger at thin air, but without letting go of the tail.

The cat tried urinating at me to let it go! That was a damned annoying thing! I let it empty itself before quickly swooping behind the head and grabbing the scruff.

Once I’d brought the cat into the house, we had time to let it settle down…

Hopefully it’ll calm down.

You can see from the photos that he’s still a little tense, even though almost two hours have passed.