Lonely Layabout

We went out for a committee meeting tonight. I was worried about leaving Missi on her own for the first time since we brought her home.

I needn't have worried. Absence had made the heart grow fonder. When we arrived home she was purring loudly and rubbing around our legs. We had fed her before we left. She was eating from her bowl when we left her. I thought she would have finished before we got home.

Not much had been eaten in our absence not sure what she had been doing but her pink mouse was on the living room floor so I can only assume she had been playing with that in our absence.

So our first venture out since obtaining Missi has gone well.

Playful Puss

This playful little thing is our new arrival Missi. She is self motivated and will play with absolutely anything.

I got her a scratching post which she uses a lot (much better than scratching the furniture).

Missi moves very fast one minute we know where she is the next we have to look for her.

I wonder what that is hanging down if I tap it will it move? She grabs it and bites it, drops it and it moves again.

Don't worry she hasn't got her head stuck this is her favourite vantage point to play. If either of us walk underneath her she taps us on the head.

or tries to grab our hands if we go to touch her.

Missi

Missi doesn't need much fuss she prefers her own space. She has discovered the stairs and is more than happy to sleep there.

I think this means she is settled in her new home.

Meeting Missi

We have been extremely lucky with our new arrival. She is settling in really well.






























She is really active and moves very fast when she wants to.

We have a scratching post with a perch on top and a piece of rope underneath. It took her a while to find this and now she is happy playing with it.

I am so glad we decided to give time to our pet to help her settle in.

She is ignoring her own bed at present but we will wait and see what bedtime brings.

She has made it known she likes sitting on the stairs and poking her head through the bannisters she seems to smile at us.

It is nice to hear her purring.

Meet Missi

Finally we have got the cat home. She was pretty docile compared to other cats I have carried in a pet carrier.

I held the container on my lap and reassured her on the way home. She didn't need much reassuring bless her. When we got home we unloaded her bedding and took the pet carrier indoors. Having made sure the doors were firmly closed behind us we let her out. Initially she didn't leave the pet carrier and yet when I was undoing it she seemed really anxious to get out.

We let her wander around to explore her new surroundings. Her bed and blanket already had her scent as she has used them the last two days to sleep on. She wasn't stressed at all.

The bottom picture was taken within half an hour of her arrival. We have a very happy cat who is constantly purring.

We all fell asleep for a little while this afternoon. We had no plans to do anything other than settle Missi in. She certainly has done that I think by the time the month is up that we have to keep her in for she will be fighting to get out the door.

I think she will end up being the boss of the household.

She has been fed and has found her water bowl.

So the first afternoon has certainly been a pleasure having her here.

Best wishes to everyone.

It pays to shop around

I love bargain hunting for anything. With the prospect of our new arrival I certainly did some bargain hunting yesterday. The RSPCA do an adoption kit which includes litter tray, litter, scoop and food for the cost of £20. I hadn't thought this was too bad until we went shopping around. We managed to secure a cat litter tray, cat litter, scoop and litter freshner all under £5. I was unable to find the food that the cat is fed on at present so will stick with the food from the RSPCA for now and possibly change the cat's diet in the future.

So apart from the cat food we are prepared fully for our new arrival.

Good News

We received a telephone call today at 12 noon to inform us we will be the lucky new owners of the cat we have chosen.

We were asked to confirm the date and time we would like to collect our chosen pet. Saturday 12 noon.

So all the preparation has been worth it.

Being Prepared

We are nearly ready to accept our new arrival.

Today the cat scratching post arrived by parcel post. I took one look at the package and thought I won't be able to put this together.

As you can see in under 5 minutes this was put together and is now ready to accept our new arrival.

As you can see we decide to buy a treat for the cat so when she arrives we will find out she reacts to catnip. We already know she is a playful cat and have taken this into consideration when planning for her.

Having visited her everyday since we chose her we have seen her sleeping, playing, wanting fuss and when she has had enough. It has given her a chance to bond with us. Unfortunately today we are unable to visit as I have a hospital appointment and tomorrow the centre is closed.

So we are waiting for the telephone call to say whether we are suitable to have our chosen pet.

The RSPCA centre have a funday on Sunday starting at 11 am for those that arrive by car there is £2 donation for car parking. As it is a charitable organisation we can understand why they are doing this. The funday is a way for the centre to raise much needed funds for the care of the animals in the centre and those waiting to be accepted in.

There will be other charities at the event as well.

So we may end up visiting the centre on Sunday as well.

Home Assessment

After not sleeping very well with worry over the home visit assessment tonight we got up and scrubbed the kitchen floor and frantically tidied up the house. We set off to the RSPCA centre armed with a blanket ready for the cat. I thought this would help her settle in as turning up to a strange house may be traumatic enough without having something smelling of her.

The staff were thrilled as this enables them to wash the bedding and use it for another cat. They are desperate for bedding at present for all their animals.

We explained to the staff I had been worried about the home visit and they said we should be ok so long as we don't live by a main road.

We then visited our chosen cat and I was much happier leaving her as you will see from the photo she was content when we left.

The RSPCA volunteer turned up early and we needn't have worried too much. The assessment is just a chat and while chatting the volunteer completes a questionnaire two of the questions were totally irrelevant to cats "who will exercise the animal?" and "How often will the animal be given exercise?"

So we answered these as honestly as possible the first with "herself" and the second "As often as she likes".

So it is paws crossed for tomorrow as we get the verdict from the visit.

Purrfect Choice

We went to visit our chosen cat again today. When we arrived she was in her cat basket and was just waking up. She was extremely pleased to see us.





We were allowed into her cubicle and we sat on the floor. The cat jumped on each of our laps in turn.





It was windy and the cat got a little bit jumpy understandably. She then leapt at her scratching post and pulled on the rope with her claws and started to chew it.





I then tapped the top platform and she looked around at the floor to start with then leapt up and managed to secure a safe footing on the top of the platform. Hanging on the wire cage is a flying fish. This is a toy attached to elastic and is bright orange. She immediately grabbed this with her paws and started to chew it.





She then cleaned herself and whilst concentrating on that the fish dropped down. I then picked it up for her and placed it by her. She grabbed it again until she went to lick herself again. This made me smile.





After a while she seemed to want to go to sleep perched on the top platform. So we decided to leave her.



At least this time I left feeling happier.

Having had a really good day especially on achieving 40 lengths swimming tonight in under an hour we received a telephone call from the RSPCA to say our home visit is tomorrow night.

So it is fingers crossed this will go well.

The Adoption Process

After choosing the cat we telephoned the RSPCA centre to let them know which cat we had chosen. As soon as we did this our cat was reserved for us.

We then had to visit the centre and complete an adoption form. This didn't take long a couple of pages of information. Once this was completed we went back to visit the cat.

Desmond was also awake at the time we went to visit and this really pulled at my heart strings. Luckily a member of staff arrived just at this moment. She could see the dilemma I was in. When she heard our decision she said we had made the better choice from their point of view. Why? The cat we have chosen is tempremental and needs to have fuss on her terms rather than just be picked up and fussed at any time. This is not a problem to me as I am used to cats.

So we fussed our chosen cat and left. I was a bit upset at leaving her behind. The staff informed us we can visit her at any time we like.

Now we are awaiting our home visit.

As you can see we are prepared with pet bowls. I know they are blue and the cat is female but I am sure she won't mind.

We are also awaiting a cat scratching post to arrive and this comes complete with a base and a platform for the cat to sit on and feel on top of the world.

The Pick of the Litter

So I finally made up my mind on Friday morning.

This is the one we chose.

So having chosen her we are now able to visit as often as we like until we have a home visit and once this has been completed we can then take her home.

We have an adoption fee to pay but this covers, worming, flea treatment, full health check and microchipping.

We were asked if I wanted her AIDS checked and to see if she had leukaemia. If these test prove positive the cat would have to be put to sleep immediately. Having just found a lovely cat I didn't want to have to go through the heartache of possibly losing her immediately so I chose to take the risk and rehome her without the tests.

What will be will be.

I had no idea there was so much to adopting a rescue cat and this experience is certainly opening my eyes.

Paws for Thought

Why have I created this blog well this is the reason why. I had a dream the other night about a large black cat. The next day we visited the RSPCA centre in Condover. I don't know what made the urge so strong to go and look at cats but there it was. We were there.

I was on the verge of walking away when we heard a frantic mewing. Steve shouted to me "You've missed one". Well I had to go back and have a look. I know I am a big softy.

The cat shouting was a beautiful tortoiseshell cat and she certainly made herself known to us. The one in the above picture is caged next to her and is called Desmond. I was torn between the two.

In order to look at the cats we had to go back to reception and complete a reservation form. We did this and were then allowed into the cattery to view the cats properly. We made a fuss of both cats at different times. Unfortunately neither will tolerate another cat to be housed with them. So I was torn between the two.

We went home to sleep on it.

The staff were really understanding and sympathised with my predicament. Having dreamt about a big black cat I was completely torn.