Young Merlin has been with us about 10 days now and is slowly starting to settle. He came from a home where he seemed to have been well cared for but due to family circumstances he could no longer stay. I’d hoped he would be very easy to rehome – nice young man, neutered, chipped etc. However, when he arrived here he growled, and growled, and hissed and then growled some more. For the first two days he ate nothing and didn’t use his lit tray. Fish, chicken, sardines … nothing could tempt him. My gang thought they’d won the lottery as dishes of very tasty noms came back out of his room untouched and were shared around.
The poor lad sat in the window of his bedroom and peered round the edge of the curtain in wide eyed horror when I went in. I found that if I just sat still by the door he’d growl at me, if I moved at all he’d start hissing. So I sat and played Candy Crush on my phone and pretended I didn’t notice him. This wasn’t easy as he has the most endearing cute way of peering round the edge of the curtain that made me want to laugh.
Like many other very timid cats we’ve had, he was quickly set up with a radio and force fed a diet of Radio 4 morning to bedtime. When it comes to finding a new home he may not want to be a lap cat but he will be able to hold his own in most discussions about current affairs and have an opinion on the latest dramas in Ambridge.
A few days ago we had a breakthrough and found some treats he’s willing to come out of his hiding place and take some risks for:
He’s a handsome young man when he shows his face. He’s dared to come down off the window sill now whilst I’m in the room and look at his toys. For some reason (I don’t want to think what) if I go to get the stick on any of his wand toys he’s a hissing mess of fear again. However he’s interested in his little roundabout and we had great fun yesterday playing with a laser toy. We’d have played with that again today – but he’s run off with it and hidden it somewhere.
8 Lives: Sheffield 8 Cat Rescue 