Compound Cats Looking For Love

We have had good news on the pet front, our permits for the cat and one dog are approved.  We are just waiting to hear if the other dog will be approved soon and therefore if we can ship them all together or if we should get the two out now and bring Perdie along a little later.  I don't want Perdie to see her 'sisters' leave and go through the trauma of being on her own (although our vet is spoiling her, she seems to have put on some weight) but equally I would like Bessie home as soon as possible given her age.

It is very common for people to take responsibility for the care and feeding of local strays then struggle to find someone to continue to care for the animal when they leave. They just go and hope that others will take over the responsibility.   In recent weeks a local charity has been posting a number of updates asking if people are able to foster or adopt dogs.  I would love to but we really can't, three pets is more than enough.

A lot of the people we have spoken to recently have been surprised that we are brining our cat over. The conversation goes the same way every time 'but why, there are lots of cats here, just leave the other one and get a stray here'.  I have to restrain myself from speaking my mind, Kismet may not be a dog but that does not mean that she is disposable.  When we adopted her we made a commitment to be responsible for her until her dying day.  If, at any stage we cannot fulfil that responsibility (ie a move where the pet is not allowed) we will do everything we can to have her adopted to a good home even paying for her continuing care if necessary.   The only circumstance I can imagine abandoning any of my pets is an emergency evacuation. I must admit to being worried, however, that Kismet will not remember us or want to be part of our family any longer, she has been away from us a long time now.  Nevertheless we will stand by our commitment to her and she can choose to stay or go when she is here, I dearly hope she stays.

The kitten who wanted to go to creche 

This morning, when I brought Mini EE to creche, a little kitten managed to get into the room.  I picked her up and brought her back outside and the poor little scrap sat purring in my arms for a while.  She obviously craves human attention and affection and would make someone a beautiful little pet.  I found out that she and her sister are being cared for by someone on the school compound.  They feed them but don't want them as pets and are looking for a home for them, as there are more than 25 cats on the compound I doubt that they will find someone.  I can't help but feel that the people who brought them in without wanting to give them a full home have not been as kind as they think they are being.  Little Millie has had just enough exposure to humans to know she wants to be a house cat but will never have the opportunity to be one, far better just to leave food out and not hold out false hope of a family.  Some of the teachers at school have raised enough money to pay for food for the foreseeable future and a vet has offered to sterilise them on a TNR (trap neuter release) basis, hopefully that will hold the number of cats stable.

I would dearly love to give little Millie a home but I can't do that.  As I said three pets really is enough.  Even though we could afford the care of another animal, financially we can't commit to the cost of moving another pet and I can only imagine how upset our three would be to arrive here to find a new pet in residence.

Faux touting for pets outside the grammar school

On my way back I ran into Faux, Faux is a big ginger cat who simply loves people.  He belongs to someone on the residential compound but has worked out that if he goes to the school in the mornings he will have lots of children to make a fuss of him. As soon as he sees his mark he pads over and if you sit on a bench he leaps into your lap looking for cuddles.  He doesn't have an audible purr but I can feel his purr muscles moving. I spent a good 5 minutes chatting to him after the children went into lessons.  If Millie does not get a family then I hope, like Faux, she will learn to get her affection fix from a range of people.

Posted to the weekly Animal Tales Linky