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Last time I told you what happened to two of my earlier companions. Emma the soft coated blue/grey cat and Zaphod my best mate. He suffered from a heart condition for 8 months and mine & Tilly's pets were concerned that a 'house move' would be the last straw for him. So when he passed away and the very same day some people came to view AND buy the house, it seemed that fate had played its hand.

'Shouldn't this radiator be hot?'

Our pets were going through two emotions; pleasure at selling the house, but upset over Zaphods demise. I was most upset at losing my best friend, we used to play incessantly together especially as we were the same age. Tilly being a black cat would ignore me and prefer Zaphod, even allowing him to sleep on her bed. She was also upset, and our shared grief helped bring us together even to the point of allowing me to sleep on her bed. Of course her pet Dave had permission to sleep on, or rather in her bed (a human trick that I had not fathomed at the time). Around us, though, things were changing rapidly, as the house filled up with cardboard boxes. These would be filled with books, videos, and all the other 'stuff' that cluttered the house and impeded our play. Of course cardboard is great to get your claws into, to rub up against and 'label' as your own property. So Tilly and I had a marvellous time inspecting each box as it arrived, testing it inside for space and comfort and assisting in the packing thereof.

Zaphod

It was about this time that Tilly told me the story of how she selected Dave as her pet. She had been shut in the RSPCA 'shelter' for a while along with numerous other cats and realised the only way out was to pick a human to leave with. Being a cat though she was very selective and could tell that some of these humans just wanted a ball of fluff. Eventually Dave looked though into her pen and she realised that here was someone that actually cared about a cats welfare.

Little did Dave realise at the time, but the selection had been made! He thought he had reduced the large selection of cats to a short list of 3. So he requested a member of staff to let him handle each of the 3 cats. When the second cage had been opened 'his' decision had been made. The RSPCA staff member even asked 'what about the third cat?', and Dave replied that there was no point, Tilly was the one for him!

When both Tilly and I thought there were quite enough boxes in the house, they went into the loft and found dozens more. Shortly after, a complete stranger arrived with piles of flat cardboard (that he claimed were boxes! ) and we were bundled into 'our' baskets. Before long we found ourselves at the vet wondering what was going to happen. I was later taken to a room I hadn't seen before and after a small pin prick I found myself back in my cage. I could hear Tilly howling below me wondering if I was all right. I wasn't sure, my teeth felt odd, and I was certainly a little groggy. After at least a whole day, Dave turned up with our baskets. We were then subjected to a very long car journey and Dave's incessant mumbling about how much we will like the 'new house'. Finally, we arrived and were taken into a house with a gravel drive (so it can't be our house then?).

 

Tilly
Tilly

We were let out of the cages into a long corridor with a tiled floor, my other pet Mark was also in the corridor watching us both. Turning a corner we found another long tiled corridor, and then another! Was this some sort of intelligence test, scaled upwards for humans? We finally found a room that was full of boxes and they smelt familiar. Another room held some familiar furniture, including mine and Tilly's chairs. What joy, but where are the stairs? Both Tilly and I dashed around the place searching for some stairs for us to play on. Eventually we realised there weren't any, but we were having similar fun around the long corridors!

It came to our attention that our pets were struggling to find things, very few of the rooms had any lighting (as if we cared!) and they couldn't remember where they had packed the torches. Tilly said that they were in the third box from the back of the other room, but they ignored her. When I agreed with Tilly I received a tickle, how did humans manage to climb out of the trees?

After several weeks of complete chaos, they slowly managed to sort themselves (and us) out. Of course we helped when we could, scratching boxes, telling them where things were and sorting out all the packing materials. The newspaper was great fun chasing each other over, under and through. Eventually they decided to allow us outside, gosh what fun! An even larger garden, with an open field alongside. Once they had sorted out our personal doorways we were very happy.

Unfortunately, the house wasn't OK, something to do with the 'electrics' being a lethal hazard and needing sorting. Little did we realise what this would mean. The house was in turmoil, again, for a further 7 months. While a stranger (who smelt of dogs!) managed to make a mess of every single room, corridor, cupboard, outhouse and garage.

Tilly

By now it was the first summer in the new home and things were fine, the house was electrically safe and it was lovely and warm. Little did we realise that things weren't fine for Tilly. She started doing little wee's on the carpet, sometimes she managed to do it in the shower tray. She was rather upset and embarrassed by this. Dave soon noticed and took her on the long journey to the vet. A course of tablets later and she seemed to be better. However, it was not to be. A little while later and she started peeing again, and occasionally there was blood. She was taken to the vet again and didn't return. I gathered from the conversation that she was under observation. By the following weekend Dave was very distraught, something about a difficult decision. A few days later he appeared at the house early and made a phone call after which he broke down, I tried to console him, but, as Tilly had been with him for over 10 years, my task was next to impossible.

Morgan

(photo © M. A. Bunce)

Life became a little strained, I received lots of attention, fusses and tickles. Dave was upset for many weeks and I was getting lonely. The only other cat I could find wanted to fight, I just wanted some feline company, someone to talk to, cat on cat.

After several weeks, Mark was adopted by Morgan. She came from another RSPCA shelter. With a medium length coat of grey and white fur she was quite different from my previous colleagues. Of course it took me a few weeks to become accustomed to her presence, but she was pleasant enough. Mark quite liked her, Dave wasn't so sure as his first encounter involved her teeth and his hand! Unfortunately, after just a few months we realised that she was seriously ill and went on one of those one-way trips to the vet. This was upsetting for us all, especially me as I was back on my own.

Fortunately it wasn't too long before Mark was adopted by another cat at the Wood Green animal shelter. Katie had only arrived minutes before they were about to leave the shelter when she caught Mark's attention. Despite moulting everywhere, probably due to her long journey she soon found that her day had not yet ended. Instead there was a relatively shorter journey to meet me! (Pictures of Katie next time)

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