Following our recent happy rehomings, we’ve had some new arrivals in the last couple of days. If there was ever anything you couldn’t be sure of, and can’t plan for ….. it has to be cats!
So first there was Kiri. We first got to know of her last weekend when someone contacted us saying she was stray and living outside for several weeks. The person had tried to find who she belonged to … with no success, but planned to take her to the vet on Monday to check for a microchip. Of course, Monday arrives and the cat who has always been at the window wanting to come in is nowhere to be seen.
Thankfully she was caught unawares on Wednesday and checked, and not surprisingly wasn’t chipped. So plans were made for us to take her in on Thursday at 4:30pm. She stayed indoors with the finder quite happily all day, until 3:50 when she managed to slip outside and disappear, leaving finder frantically between trying to message me and find the cat. Fortunately whilst we sat and drank tea and complained about the awkwardness of cats, Kiri bounced back up to the window … and is now safely with us here.
Friday’s arrivals were a different kind of challenge. There’s a group that many rescues belong to where pleas for placements are posted if local rescues have no space and cats are vulnerable where they are. We offered a space to a couple from the West Midlands who had been abandoned when their ‘owners’ moved out and left them. It looked like a good plan as I had a meeting in Derby on Friday afternoon and that was sort of half way. So in theory we were meeting at the service station near East Midlands airport at 5pm. I slid out of my meeting into the horrid Derby City Centre traffic and headed south. Breathed a sigh of relief as I parked up at 4:53 and had time to nip into the services. Came out, messaged the cats we were meeting only to find they’d taken a wrong turn and landed themselves in the Derby traffic I’d so recently escaped.
There’s something a little bit odd isn’t there, about meeting someone you don’t know … in a very busy place. Whilst it was still light the associations that came to mind were of wearing a red carnation, or carrying a copy of the Guardian. As it went dark, and I got colder and colder sitting in the car, my thoughts turned more to drug deals and arms trafficking. Seriously who else meets a stranger on a service station car park to pass something on? Reflecting on the easiest way to do this, I texted the cats to say that I would be parked by the billboard advertising soft drinks. Being on the remote edges of the car park meant that there weren’t many coming and goings. One or two cars pulled up …. flickers of light associated with either a nicotine or ipad fix .. and drove off again. Finally a car pulled in that looked more likely. Hmmm .. so now what? Wave to what may be a random stranger? Knock on the driver window to enquire whether he had any feline passengers looking for a ride up north? What clinched it was the look on the other driver’s face which appeared to be asking the same questions 🙂
Anxious fur was transferred from one vehicle to another, plus a rather large parcel of things to help them onto this next chapter of their lives. Given the earlier part of the story I should have known better than to trust them with the map reading. We did 3 circuits of the service station before we got out of there, and by the time the Cat Nav kicked in we’d landed ourselves on M1(S) rather than (N). So reluctantly down to Loughborough we go, seeing that northbound traffic is horrendous, so when we get to the first junction we decide to go cross country rather than U Turn and join the traffic jam. Hence the West Mids fur has tour not only of Derby but of Loughborough too! Finally rejoining the M1 at Nottingham I attempt to reassure them that South Yorks is a better county all together. Sadly bouncing along the Sheffield potholes they remained unconvinced.
It was late by the time we got home, so I got them into their bedroom, gave them some supper, made up their beds and apart from checking in a few times just left them to unpack and settle in. Today we’ve had more time together to start to talk and get to know each other.
Kitty is a little bit shy … but very sweet when you start to get to know her ….
Knut was a little hissy ….. but also very purry … and reluctantly agreed to make an appointment with Dr Tim to discuss his family planning options.
There’s a real Valentine’s romance waiting to blossom …. but unless appropriately chaperoned Kiri and Knut will not be spending time together until after their vet appointments on Friday.
Kiri & Knut .. a brief encounter
8 Lives: Sheffield 8 Cat Rescue 