Started off fairly quietly with nothing much happening. The little ginger cat was settled in the cage in our garage and I'd begun getting into a routing of visiting him four times a day and feeding him twice. Every time I let him out, the first thing he did, before running around the garage, was to rub up against me so I'd stroke him.
Tuesday morning and I'd thought about taking him through to StrayAid at Coxhoe where I was due to drop off a load of dog bedding and dog food that morning. Susan suggested ringing the Sunderland Echo with the story about how he was found tied to a gatepost with a shoelace. The Echo are always favourable to animal stories but they have to have a hook on which to peg the story to get the reader's attention, which this did. Susan called them, told them the piece over the phone and they agreed to send a photographer that afternoon.
Not surprisingly, the photographer was over an hour late, though she had a good excuse. She took several shots of me holding the ginger cat and more of Andrea and Susan standing next to each other holding a couple of bunnies -two brothers which had been given into our care. The piece didn't appear until Friday and, as far as text goes, it was fine. The photos were amusing from our point of view. All that appeared of me was a portion of my right hand. Susan had been completely cropped out so only Andrea was shown, but she'd been misidentified as Susan.
By this time, I'd been letting the ginger cat, now provisionally called Tim, have the runaround of our house for a couple of hours each afternoon. He immediately showed that he was extremely fast, darting around all over the place, extremely destructive, as he attacked carpets and chairs and anything else vaguely soft including a cloth mousy. He and Little Bob played chasey with each other, though Tom got spat at by a couple of my other cats. Little Bob, however, pretty much likes every cat and person he meets.
And here's a couple of snaps I took at Carol's, one of the new arrival who turned up the same day as Tim.
Wednesday was a busy morning. After my usual early morning swim, I dropped Tim off at the vet's for neutering. From there I went to my doctor's to give a blood sample for testing. Home and a quick bit to eat as I'd had to fast since ten the previous evening. Then down town for coffee with my ex-work colleagues and show them cat photos I'd taken -two of the three are big cat fans. And from there to the dentist's, yet again, to decide whether to keep the filling I'd had put in the week before or have the tooth removed. Although it was still sensitive to temperature, I opted to keep the tooth and only have it removed if the filling dropped out again, which has happened several times recently. In the afternoon, and after picking up Tim who was fine, I had to pick up some furniture for the shop.
Now I'm sure I did something on Thursday but I haven't listed it in my diary and I can't remember what I did at all that day. Friday I did some running around after cats, took some dried cat food over to Carol, and the piece appeared in the Echo and the phone started ringing.
First thing Saturday morning, after the usual routine of feed cats, let them in and out depending when they're stayed out all night or not, see to to Tim, etc, was to drive to Hetton on the outskirts of greater Sunderland to drop off a cat cage. A young woman who'd had dealings with us before had opened her front door earlier this to have a cat run in, run upstairs and hide in a fitted wardrobe where it proceeded to have four kittens. As her cat took exception to this, she asked us for a loan of the cage until the kittens were old enough to be re-homed. The house next door to hers was boarded up which concerned me a bit but hers was well looked after. She also had her sister and sister's 2 year old son there. The boy was bright, chatty and friendly, and really rather cute and I'm not a great fan of kids at the best of times. The photos below can speak for themselves.
On the way home, I picked up some cat food for Carol, who has several growing kittens with large appetites, and took it over. A little later and just tucking into my lunch, I got a call from Andrea at the shop who had an elderly lady she knew who was interested in taking on a cat. I rang Carol and arranged to go there and then so I picked up the lady from the shop and took her over. After much deliberation, she selected a quiet 5 year old tortoiseshell female which I'll drop off on Monday once she's got all the cat stuff. At teatime I took Tim to his new home not far from where Andrea lives. It looks pretty good but as he is very lively I suggested a two-week trial after which I'll do the formal adoption procedure. I'm quite hopeful.
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