Sheffield

Christmas Newsletter

Posted on December 6, 2015 by accidental fosterer

Is it seriously almost Christmas again? Where did that time go? Wishing you and your loved ones (furry and otherwise) the best of the season and all good wishes for the New Year. We’re thinking back to last Christmas and all the lovely photos our former guests sent us, enjoying their trees and presents … and Xmas dinners. It’s super to see them happy and healthy and enjoying life, especially when we know where they came from and how different life might have been had they not found their way into rescue. Have a look at some of these lovely felines:

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Our older girls find lovely homes

It’s always wonderful to get cats settled into lovely homes, but I think the highlights of this quarter have to be Gertie and Maya … both older girls so more tricky to rehome. Gertie is a lovely friendly purry girl, who came to us having been found collapsed and blind in a field by some dogs out on a walk. When her high blood pressure was treated her sight was restored. She found a super home up in West Yorkshire with a lovely family.

Maya on the other hand was healthy but “untouchable” and needed humans with endless patience and nerves of steel to adopt her. We’d been advised to find her an outdoor home at a stables/farm but just felt there was something about her, if given the right opportunity, she would really make it as a house cat. We weren’t wrong! Since arriving in her new home she’s just gone from strength to strength. I still need to pinch myself to be sure I’m not dreaming when I see some of the photos of her. She gets on well with her step sisters … though they’re from very different backgrounds (they’ve been indoor cats all their lives) and clearly loves her humans. She’s not ready to be stroked yet, but makes contact with her family by sleeping hugging their clothes.

Of course there have been lots of other happy re homings of less challenging cats … here are some of our favourite pics

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And inevitably our new arrivals … looking for homes

Poor old Snowy has lost his elderly human into a care home and is grieving, but ready to open his furry heart to someone else if they’ll care for him. Wilma and her kits are very anxious, having lived on the streets for a while. The little G Team are very small for their age having lived under a shed all their lives until last week, but slowly getting used to home comforts.

Snowy

W Team

G Team

For sale – Calendars

Our superb 2016 Calendars are on sale … price £5 each. Full of professional photos of our gorgeous rescue cats. Perfect for your own wall … or for Christmas present for cat loving friends.

1. They’re on sale at Millhouses Vets4Pets and at Pet Company pet shop just up the road from the vets, 974-976 Abbeydale Road, Sheffield, and also at Victoria J Smith Opticians, 26 Terminus Road, Sheffield.

2. If you fancy coming round to my house and playing with kittens whilst buying calendars, they’re available here – just email me and arrange a time to call.

3. If none of these options are convenient you can get them by mail order by emailing fiona@the-it-trainer.co.uk .. It’s Fiona’s company who kindly put up the money to have the calendars printed. P&P will be added to the cost.

4. They will also be on sale a Tesco Abbeydale Road on Thursday 10 December. Please come along and support us .. we’ll have other lovely goodies available to buy too.

Have a wonderful (and safe) Xmas

Please remember that some of the traditional Xmas foliage is poisonous to cats

I was horrified to see a post on facebook this evening of a kitten who had died having become tangled in fairy lights. Thankfully its not something that happens often … but I’m sure if it happened to me I’d never free my mind from the memory. Having arrived home this week to find a kitten who had fetched a paper carrier out of a cupboard and got tangled in it … the handles getting tighter and tighter as they’d twirled round in his panic … I can see how these accidents happen. Please keep your little ones safe.

Sending Season’s Greetings to you all … may you be happy, healthy and safe … all all good wishes for 2016

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a change is as good as a rest (3)

Posted on December 2, 2015 by accidental fosterer

Back in Singapore again we did a few things that weren’t cat related and then headed off for the Cat Museum we’d seen advertised at Cat Socrates.

To be fair … if you’re looking for a “museum” its a bit of a disappointment. However if you’re looking for a super cat rescue with some imagination ….. this is your place! They only opened this year … in Singapore’s 50th anniversary. The volunteer I spoke to said their aim had been to rehome 50 cats … but they went way past that target some time ago. It’s kind of like a cat cafe, without refreshments, but people pay to go in and pet/play with the cats and hopefully adopt them. I was intrigued to see petting guides …. I’ve downloaded something similar as I didn’t take a photo

Hard to imagine that there are people out there who haven’t really encountered cats before and need to be told. However, if most cats in Singapore are indoor ones, and some families just don’t have them …. One of my earliest memories … age 2-3 I guess … was being warned about how (and how not!) to stroke my grandmother’s cat.

They had some very interesting cats, and lots of utterly adorable ones available for adoption.

Couldn’t help but be a little envious of the amount of space they had, in a prime location. And of this superb suspension bridge.

As with our vet visit, so much seems very familiar … and in another way is so different. Lots of people working hard to get cats and kittens to safety and then get then settled in loving, furever homes. [Sadly also similar scenarios of how cats end up there, abandoned, not neutered etc.] The give away is that the shapes of faces and colour are rather different to the Uk … and of course the knot in the tail can make you rather abruptly aware that you’re not at home 🙂

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we interrupt our holiday photos to bring you the latest news

Posted on November 28, 2015 by accidental fosterer

We had a lovely quiet first week (not quite a week) home from holiday. Well … “quiet” if you ignore the harsh reality of return to work, and the normal chaos of our resident cats and the little E Team. There had been a few messages whilst we were away about cats looking for rescue places, but things seemed to have settled down. Then last Friday we had a message about 9 kittens needing to come into rescue. They’d been mentioned whilst I was away, but seemed to be sorted out, and now they weren’t and it was “urgent”. So between appointments at work on Friday I was messaging about them and arranged to collect early Friday evening. Rushed to supermarket after work to stock up on kitten food, got the room ready for them. Minutes before I set off to collect them and I get a message to say they’d been given away. One person had taken 4 and the other taken 5. It’s not easy to think that they’ll be safe and neutered and cared for … but nothing else really that we could do.

The E Team

So we had a room ready for kittens who weren’t going to arrive, and moved on to the next priority scenario: Snowy had messaged us whilst we were away to ask for a rescue space. His elderly human had sadly had a stroke and gone into a care home, and he was all at sixes and sevens not knowing quite what to do with himself. He was being fed and could access his home still so he hadn’t been top priority, but now that the kittens who were outside didn’t need the space, he was offered it. He got back to us saying that although he’d been looking for help for a few weeks, he now had someone who might offer him a furever home … so thanks … but he probably no longer needed us.

Snowy before coming into rescue

So then when another lady messaged to say she’d been living in a garden in S8 for quite a while, needed to get in out of the cold, and was off to the vets on Monday to check if she was chipped and had a human out there (though she doubted it) we said she could come and stay with us after the vets if she had nowhere to go.

And THEN Snowy messaged us, pretty gutted, to say that his dreams had crashed, his potential adopter didn’t want him after all, and could he please come in. We had to say “no” because we’d offered it to the lady who was going to the vet on Monday.

But THEN, Monday came and went and the S8 lady didn’t get back to us. If she had we’d have picked her up from the vet on our way home from work and she’d be here and safe. Because she didn’t, we went back to Snowy and re-offered him the space. I hate this kind of chaos… but so often people contact rescues wanting “urgent” rescue space, then resolve the problem in whatever way, and then never bother to reply to rescues offering help. With so many cats needing care we just have to move on to the next one.

We went out to pick Snowy up on Tuesday evening. He was obviously anxious, and had let himself go a bit since his human had been ill. He got out of his carrier, cleared off and hid behind the chest of drawers in his room.

Then later (LATE) that evening we had a distressed call from a friend about a mum and her kittens who had been living rough. A complicated discussion had occurred on facebook earlier, and a botched rescue plan which had left mum and kits trapped in a small carrier for several hours. We were able to arrange to get the little family safe overnight and I went up to collect them the following evening (Wednesday). They arrived quite traumatised and terrified. Sadly there is a fourth kitten who is still at large out there as he couldn’t be caught … so we’re still waiting for him… and will obviously need to slot him in if (please god) he is found.

THEN the S8 lady who had been living in the garden got in touch with an update of her vet trip, revised to Friday this week. Heartbreakingly I had to say “no” to her and suggest other options.

THEN on Thursday we had a message about mum and 6 kittens living rough in another garden. The finders planned to adopt the mum but needed rescue for the kittens. My immediate response was to think “no”! But as rain lashed against the window of my office and I turned the heating up … and thought of tiny ones living outdoors. Another 6 would only take us up to the 9 I was expecting last Friday, and maybe more confident kits would help the terrified ones. So we offered a space but then the finders didn’t seem to be proactive in responding / arranging to get them here. I set a 10am deadline for Saturday after which we would cancel their rescue place. And since we’d been thinking that we could fit another 6 kittens in, maybe we could use that space to bring in the S8 lady who was living outdoors. The deadline passed, various other “urgent rescue space” messages flashed through (two 10 year old cats about to be put to sleep because “owner” had had a baby; 3 young cats (one of them disabled) … being given their marching orders because “owner” having another baby all considered … these are just the local ones) but we decided the best option would be to offer to the S8 lady. I was on the edge of writing to her when the 6 kittens messaged to say they were now 5 and could they come tomorrow?

It’s still touch and go whether the “6 now 5” kittens arrive, but the S8 lady has revised her vet trip while Wednesday. I’m writing this not to criticise anyone … we all have pressures and limitations and lives outside of cats (um … well most people do) …. but just to give you an idea of what sometimes goes on behind the scenes with rescue. I try to do the best I can with the ones who get here, and not think too much about the ones who don’t. If I did I’d go completely crazy 😦

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a change is as good as a rest (2)

Posted on November 22, 2015 by accidental fosterer

Having happily reacquainted ourselves with our furry Singapore friends, we set out on our travels. First stop was Joo Chiat, which I’d mistakenly heard in French as “du chat”, and a lovely little shop called Cat Socrates. I assumed it was Socrates himself who welcomed us to the store … he was very professional and business like as he greeted us at the door and proceeded to show us around the shop.

However it seems that his name is Zoo_Zoo and he’s only one half of the operation. We didn’t spot his colleague … maybe they job share. I do like his tie though. I wish now that I’d got one for our Sooty. It was here that we picked up some info about a cat museum in the centre of town …. but more of that later.

A few days on and we were airborne again and off to Java to see the delights of Yogyakarta. En route to the marvels of Borobudur we stopped at a stunning restaurant for lunch.

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Despite the haze and threatening storm I think it has to qualify as one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever stopped for lunch. It seemed like just the sort of place a cat would appear on the patio, strolling around, oblivious to the importance of the setting. …. And indeed he did appear … just as I’d packed my camera away safely and we were leaving. This Prambanan puss didn’t escape the camera though

Who knows the extent to which he was aware of the backdrop to his territory or how many people had travelled thousands of miles to see it

He may well have been more aware of the storm that was about to break 2 minutes later.

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a change is as good as a rest (1)

Posted on November 21, 2015 by accidental fosterer

You might have noticed it’s been quiet around here for a couple of weeks. That’s because we’ve been away visiting our friends in Singapore.

It was lovely to meet them again. Last time I saw them was just over a year ago, the day they were adopted from SPCA

: at the SPCA last year

Both as gorgeous as ever though lovely to see that she has grown so much in confidence, whilst he … well his legs have growed and growed … he must be one of the tallest cats I’ve ever met 😉 They’re very lucky kitties to have been rescued by SPCA and have found such a lovely furever home.

One of the first holiday activities was to go with this young lady and her adoptive parents to see a specialist vet about her eye condition. She’d had cat flu when she came into rescue, and it left her with a sore and runny eye. She’d waited a while to get her appointment so didn’t want to miss it, but was concerned it was a bit of a buswoman’s holiday for me. Not at all! Fascinated to visit the vets thousands of miles from home where things are so different whilst also so much the same. Similar displays of quality dry food for sale, and posters about pet health. Very similar looking scenarios of families clustered round loved pets in waiting room. It could have been our usual weekly vet run had it not been a cool 30C and most of the faces Chinese.

thanks to adoptive mum Jo for this lovely photo

Much of day to day life with cats in Singapore seems pretty much as it is here. Eat, sleep, litter tray, play. Some things though are quite different: there’s no snuggling up infront of the fire or draping your fur over the radiator, and somehow sprawling in front of the aircon isn’t as attractive. However the in house entertainment is more fun – with lizards racing across the ceiling/walls. When it comes to food and drink most of the same foods are available, however mosquitoes and ants and heat come into the equation. Still water is a breeding ground for mozzies, so water fountains are safer. Ants are quick to sniff out any food left lying around (whether that be cat or human food), so the amount of time that food is left out has to be limited.

There appears to be more emphasis on keeping cats indoors than there is in the UK … one rescue describing allowing them outdoors as “a death sentence”. These two live in a pretty safe contained area so are allowed out to explore for brief periods. They’re kept in on certain days when “fogging” is scheduled … that’s when people come round and spray the area with chemicals to deal with the mosquitoes. It’s a necessary exercise but not something you’d want on your cat’s lungs. Another consideration has to be what wildlife might be lurking in the bushes – there is potential for them to drag something much worse than a half dead mouse home with them.

The other different thing you might be interested to know about Singapore moggies is that it’s typical for them to have a knot in their tail.

I got the impression that the knot made them less attractive in terms of adoption … however I was on holiday as opposed to doing any serious research so I could well be wrong. My subjective experience is that it looks cute, and makes them who they are … however the natural (for me) stroke of head start .. down the neck … along the body … and up the tail is a little thrown by the knot. My human Singapore friends (who have previously been used to UK kitties) assure me that you simply get used to k/not doing this manoeuvre.

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The return of the N key … and other short stories

Posted on October 30, 2015 by accidental fosterer

We’re very relieved to have had a new N key (plus hinge) arrive through the letter box a couple of days ago, and expect our readers are too! The little E Team are still very keen on following the IT module in their kitten socialisation course … but since Elijah’s little accident have been asked for form an orderly queue on my lap and take turns on the keyboard.

Their mummy is doing well at Sheffield Cat Shelter and is advertised for adoption on their website. I think she’s enjoying having some space, and her little ones are definitely coming out their shells much more now they’re not being slapped by mum every few minutes. The older kittens have welcomed them into their gang for playtime, and cuddles, and my adult residents (normally a grouchy lot) have been there to mother them a bit when they’ve needed. Thanks especially to Honey, our only resident who has been a mum for stepping up to the line on that one.

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Readers with good memories and considerable stamina will perhaps remember the series of cat flap saga posts, as we switched between the pet porte microchip cat flap and the sure flap dual scan flap (with a diversion into the pet porte ridiculous sized all singing and dancing flap along the way). We thought it had all been resolved a few months ago by having a hole put in the other door of the patio doors and having both installed, one in each door … the Pet Porte one permanently locked so our old lad Sooty could be kept indoors, but available as a safe entry that our semi feral cat Amber would trust as she’d been terrified of the sure flap when we installed that. Whilst the Sure Flap one would allow out just the cats we’d scanned to be allowed outdoors. In effect it became a bit of a one way system as no one seemed to want to use the Sure Flap to come in.

It all worked pretty well until one morning when I got up and Flipper wasn’t home. I always get them in when it goes dark and lock the cat flap so they can’t go back out. I was certain they’d all been in before I went to bed … I can’t settle to sleep without knowing they’re all home and safe .. but thought perhaps she’d slipped out when I’d opened the door to call Amber in, or maybe even that I’d mistaken Amber’s tabby stripes curled in an igloo for Flipper’s … but it seemed a bit unlikely. They were all home the next night so I put it to the back of my mind. However later in the week it happened again. Flipper was out when I got up. This time I was 100% sure Flipper had been in when I went to bed, but only 90% certain of my sanity. I tried pushing on the flap when it was locked and couldn’t see how she could have got through it without breaking it. I started looking for none existent windows that I’d left open, and imagining holes in the wall or the floor that I’d not previously noticed.

rather grumpy residents locked in for the night

In the end I wasn’t sure whether to contact Sure Flap or a psychiatrist. I opted for the former. I was surprised to get a very prompt and helpful reply saying that: “We do know that a very small percentage of extremely clever and persistent cats have been able to ….. hold the grey catch down and simultaneously claw the door open inwards.” Much as I love her, I’d not really had Flipper down as “extremely clever” but I will give her “persistent”. Customer Service took the serial number of the flap we have and assured me “Our design team have developed a solution to this which we would be happy to send out to you”. I waited for the arrival of some sticky tape, or something to put across the front of the flap so it couldn’t be pulled inwards. However a week later a complete new cat flap arrived with the legendary label “thumbproof”!

Let’s see what the little monkey makes of that!

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aother week i rescue

Posted on October 24, 2015 by accidental fosterer

Hmm … that’s a bit of a odd title! Typos? Bad grammar? If you’re a avid facebook page reader you’ll kow exactly what’s goig o .. if ot you’ll eed to read o.

It’s bee a tough week i some ways. After multiple ights with o sleep because Elsa was cryig ad rippig at the door ad destroyig the lamiate … we realised the curret situatio was impossible. I ay dilemma … ad I’ve had my fair share … I try to thik about which awful sceario I’d feel least bad about. I this case it was a) Elsa stays with her kits ad possibly seriously ijures oe b) we separate Elsa ad kits here .. but the have all the other cats ad kittes mixig because owhere else to keep them separate ad they all start fightig ad keepig me awake all ight ad the situatio would just be impossible c) Elsa goes somewhere else, removed from her kittes a little too early to be ideal i terms of socialisatio. ‘A’ absolutely had to ot happe. ‘B’ eeded to ot happe … that might soud a little selfish … but this is my residet cat’s home, ad I have to keep fuctioig ad be fit to go to work. Sadly it had to be ‘C’. Thakfully Sheffield Cat Shelter helped us out by takig Elsa oce we’d got her spayed ad chipped. Whole mix of feeligs about that: gratitude ad guilt beig the mai oes …. but also quite a lot of relief.

It had all got too much for Elsa … her kittes pursued her reletlessly for food. She was seriously stressed ad uhappy .. ad that was beig passed o to everyoe else who lives here.

A couple of the little Es had bee eatig some solid food … but mostly they were relyig o mum for milk. Iterestigly they foud they could chew perfectly well whe it was fresh chicke ivolved .. but ot cat food. So we’ve bee workig through slow process of kitte formula mixed with baby rice … ad the bleded with cat food …. gradually makig more of th mix cat meat ad less milk.

So the weeked brigs us to a rare positio where all the cats i the house ca reasoably safely mix at least for some of the time. Shadow ad the little Is have bee gettig o ok for a while ow. She’s bee washig them ad bee a real sweetie i may ways.

Eve Hoey has got used to sugglig up with them all

So we fairly cofidetly decided to mix i the E team.

Mostly its goe well ad it’s bee woderful havig them dowstairs playig aroud. They’ve all had their first IT lessos. It wet fairly well. Ezra played o the keyboard .. but was geerally more iterested i my beer

Elisha ad Ekiel had a little play aroud … toggleed betwee full scree ad back .. discoected the wifi … opeed special access settigs …. discovered oe or two keyboard shortcuts I’d ot kow about before. However whe it came to Elijah’s tur he just got too excited, grabbed at the keys, ad pulled a hadful off as he was removed. Most of them re attached ok … sadly the letter betwee M ad O is permaetly damaged. A replacemet is o order …… util the ….. prepare for typos 😉

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Not an easy week

Posted on October 17, 2015 by accidental fosterer

It’s been a mega stressful week this week. Elsa started her time here as a rather timid and hissy cat a couple of months ago, but settled and was a lovely attentive mum to her four little boys.

E Team 9 days old

She’s been a really good mum, but in the last week or so it’s all got a bit much for her. Between caring for her kits, looking to defend them from the other cats she can smell (though wouldn’t actually be allowed anywhere near her and her little ones) in the vicinity, and hormones ebbing and flowing (she’s mostly likely coming into season again already) it’s just overwhelming, and she’s started attacking her little ones. There are always going to be some scraps and frayed tempers at this stage … sharp toothed kittens, x4, still wanting to breastfeed … most mums would lash out, and being in rescue cooped up in one room isn’t ideal … though it is better than trying to protect kittens living out in the open, unfed and at risk from foxes etc.

Unfortunately its gone beyond the usual slap around the head for nipping her, playing with her tail, or not keeping still whilst she’s washing them. Elsa has been really kicking her kits, and hard … sometimes quite unprovoked … and pursuing them when they run away from her. After discussion with our vets we’ve concluded that she needs to be separated from them … and just given some supervised contact time.

On one level that’s seems fine … the kittens are safe, Elsa has some space. On another level, the question as to be asked “what space?”, and “how will she and the kittens cope?”

The answers are:

a) The space she’s got is the room we’d been using to keep Shadow and/or the I Team separate from our adult residents (and me) overnight so we could have a little peace to sleep. So now these three older kittens are free-range day and night, chasing each other, diving on the bed, and generally bothering me and the residents. No sleep and that’s affecting my day job 😦

b) Elsa isn’t coping well with it. Although she clearly didn’t want to be with her kits, being away from them, but within smell and sound range, is not good either. She howls 80% of the night and rips at her bedroom door and the laminate.

c) The kittens are kind of coping. They were quite subdued whilst she was sharing a room with them, but have started to come out of themselves a little now. It’s been a steep learning curve with the weaning though

We’ve had bottles of kitten formula, kitten formula with baby rice, formula with mashed up cat food, and chicken slices. All with variable results.

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hi .. have you got your bed back yet?

Posted on October 3, 2015 by accidental fosterer

I find it amusing that the above has become one of the most regular greetings from people both socially and at work.

The answer is “YES! … kind of” As of a couple of weekends ago, the little J Team went off to their new homes – here they are settling in

jasmine & joseph

jacob & joshua

Shadow had moved into Maya & Gertie’s room when they moved out, but once the J Team left went into their bedroom, and then Elsa and the E Team moved into what had become Shadow’s room … and then finally we had our bedroom back.

I say “kind of” because of course its not actually “my” bed … This fact is pointed out to me frequently at 3am by a multitude of starfish shaped cats, sleeping at right angles to each other. Apparently its “our” bed, but since they spend more time in it than I could possibly commit to, then really its “their” bed.

This fact was played out today when I wanted to change the bedding. Being a fair and reasonable human being, I tagged them all in a facebook post, alerting them to the fact that the bedding would need to be removed at some point in the next few hours and could they please MOVE!

Honey refused, despite the pillows being taken away, and the wash basket waiting for the duvet cover. Jango on the other hand reluctantly agreed to shift, but removed himself to sleep half way down the stairs making the rest of the cleaning operation rather awkward.

I checked back every half hour or so, waiting for Honey to move. Eventually she did …. However, she’d been replaced by an immovable Jango.

This isn’t entirely unusual. What made me laugh though was that he was just as reluctant to move when I started remaking the bed.

Even to the point of sitting tight whilst I tucked the sheet in …

Things got more interesting when Shadow bounced in – I’m hoping it works to follow the link

At this point … the point a few seconds after the end of the above clip .. Jango slumped out from under the sheet and slunk off downstairs. Shadow however continued to help with “Project: bedding change”

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It’s been busy (3)

Posted on September 20, 2015 by accidental fosterer

It’s been a very exciting day today … I finally have my bed back after 3 months on the sofa! However, that’s not the really exciting bit … we’ve had some other news too. Before I tell you that …. lets just rewind to Saturday three weeks ago …

… My friend Jenny and I were chatting on facebook about a little cat whom she might have fostered but for various reasons it was no longer going to happen. I made the not entirely throw away comment that she could always foster Maya instead. “Not entirely throwaway” because I’d seen Jenny with May when she’d visited and knew Maya liked her, and had thought many times that a home like Jenny’s would be just perfect for May. I thought I might well be dreaming when Jenny said yes she’d give it a go!!!!!

So we explained it all to Maya, who as you can see was very interested in the plan. Unfortunately, like Gertie in our previous story, although she was delighted with the idea of the destination, she hadn’t quite factored in the trauma of the journey. This is a little cat who had been slowly gaining confidence but still couldn’t really be touched easily, and certainly wasn’t ready to sign up to being put in a cat carrier. We tried to grab her in a towel but she slid out like soap in the bath and was away, behind the desk, round the side of poor old Gertie’s crate. Way too much stuff in that room to make it an easy capture. Furniture taken out and piled on landing. May scuttled into the hidey hole on her cat tree and glued herself to the back of it. Cat tree unfastened from the wall …. and moments later I’m lying on the floor with an open carrier on my stomach whilst Jenny tips the cat tree up with the hidey box over the carrier desperately trying to get Maya to let go. It doesn’t work, I get more anxious and stressed. Jenny puts on the motorbike gloves that were kindly donated to us when we had to get May to the vet for her spay op, and tries much more bravely than I would have, to get Maya to come out. Eventually Maya rushes out and onto the windowsill and I corner her with the carrier and slam it shut. Once cat is safe in carrier I burst into tears … distraught about having put such a frightened puss through all this trauma and worried sick it would set her back. Poor Jenny then torn between trying to sort out me and cat.

Thankfully this car journey wasn’t a long one and we soon got May set up in her new bedroom. I went home to worry about how long it might be until Jenny messaged me to ask me to take her back.

It wasn’t like that though. The move set her back for all of a couple of hours … and after that she began to make progress beyond my wildest dreams. By the next day I was getting photos of Maya having her head stroked

Faster than you could imagine Maya was getting to know her foster sisters

and venturing out of her igloo

One of the most lovely things to see was her actually stretched out relaxed rather than hunched up

Even more lovely was to see videos of her having a head and face massage …. sadly we don’t seem to be able to download those from facebook and upload them here so you’ll just have to imagine.

Before her first week was over, the crate had gone and she was exploring the rest of the house. Still with the security of Uncle Bob’s trusty igloo to return to

However she was happy to follow her sisters Milly and Missy downstairs and play (loudly) when the humans were in bed. And then come down and sit in the conservatory when the humans weren’t in bed

It’s heartbreakingly lovely to hear how she’s playing with her foster sisters. Apparently she’s rather noisier than they are … we wonder if she might have her Lancashire clogs on when she’s chasing around.

Today her foster mummy made an announcement on facebook which was the news so much better than having our bed back:

“Milly and Missy are pleased to announce that they have a sister .. Miss Maya Maisie May x”

She’s staying … it’s a furever home …. Could anything seriously be better than that? I asked her (ex foster) mummy what Maya had said when she knew she had a permanent home there. She said she asked whether she could sit on the furniture now ..

Breaking news is that she’s now asleep on mummy’s bed …. there you go … give ’em an inch and they’ll take a mile. Having said that … so many miles from where her story with us started back in April this year … living in a grubby outhouse, very pregnant, very poorly and terrified.

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