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Some of you will know that I was once an abandoned un-neutered tom cat. I became an abandoned cat when my previous family left my home. When they left they closed the doors and windows of my house and sealed up my cat flap. For three months afterwards, I lived on the streets and although I tried to continue to look after myself properly I couldn't because I wasn't able to find proper shelter and enough food. Moreover, the food I did manage to find - usually in and around dustbins and rubbish sacks - was generally very poor quality. Sometimes, my misery made me brave enough to seek shelter and food in other cats' homes. I would get in through their cat flaps. As a result of my scavenging I eventually became ill.While I was ill, I was in another cats' house one day when his hoomin came home. As I had been sick on her bed and messed on her kitchen floor, I feared her reaction when she discovered what I had done. When I saw her, therefore, I immediately rushed out though the cat flap. Two days after fleeing from this lady's house, while searching for food, I smelt oily fish in her garden and tracked some of it down to the open end of a metal cage. Now, had I had my wits about me, I would have realised that this was a trap. But driven by hunger, I did not. I went straight into it and as I reached for more fish at its far end, the trap door clanged shut behind me. As I quietly sat worrying about what might happen to me next, the lady came out of her house, picked up the trap and carried it indoors. She then made a telephone call.
Sometime later another hoomin appeared, said nice things to me and transferred me into a carrying basket. She then drove me in her car to a place with which I have since become familiar - the vets. When we arrived this hoomin handed me over to another and then left. Very shortly afterwards I was given an injection that put me to sleep. To this day, I do not know why it was thought necessary to put me to sleep. When I eventually woke up, the lady who had trapped me came to collect me. By now, I didn't care what happened.
I was driven to another place and handed over to yet another hoomin who put me in an outdoor wired enclosure within which there was a wooden house. This hoomin gave me lots of strokes, spoke softly to me and then tried to encourage me to use the comfortable cat-sized bed in my new house. When I wouldn't, she placed me in it, gave me another stroke, kissed my head and left, promising to return in a little while. When she returned, she had a bowl of food for me. I was so pleased to see her that I climbed onto her shoulders, wrapped myself tightly around her neck, rubbed my face against her check and started purring. When I did this, she seemed delighted. She kissed me again and said " Oh you darling boy. We must find a way to ensure that you stay here".
After spending many days and nights in the enclosure in her garden, this hoomin allowed me to start mixing with the rest of her family. She lived with a number of other cats and a male hoomin called Peter. She told me that if I wanted to stay with her as much as she wanted me to stay, I would have to persuade Peter to let me. So, remembering how she had reacted when I climbed onto her shoulders, wrapped myself tightly around her neck, rubbed my face against her check and started purring, I did the same to Peter when I first met him. It did the trick.
At first, I was only allowed to spend time with my new family during the day. This was because the other cats needed to get used to me. They - and the hoomins - were such good company that ,very soon, I wanted to spend all my time with them. I got my way by making the hoomins upset by starting to cry as soon they tried to take me out to my enclosure at bedtime.
The two hoomins upon whose shoulders I climbed are now my beloved Meowmie and Uncle Peter and all their cats are my friends. Remembering my ugly past, I see now that what happened to me then was truly a blessing in disguise.
Purrs
Jason
Copyright © Sheenah Large
March 18, 2003
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