Kitten drama!
On Saturday evening I was visiting my aunt, who lives not far away from me. When I left her house at about 11 pm I spotted a kitten, sitting on the pavement and wailing its head off. Went over to pet it, then started walking home, and it followed me. As I have a (very nervous) cat of my own, I tried to ignore it and not let it into the house, but the little thing just stayed at the back door. So eventually I cordoned off my own cat in the living room and let this youngster in to feed him - he was obviously very hungry, and after he'd polished off a big bowl of food I let him out again, hoping he'd find his way home.
No! 20 minutes later he was still outside, and it was a freezing cold night. Three days earlier, the aunt I'd been visiting had made the agonising decision to have her 20-year old cat Hamish, who was suffering from cancer, put to sleep. There was nowhere else I could go - he couldn't come into my house without giving my cat a nervous breakdown, I couldn't leave him out in the cold - so back to my aunt's house I went, kitten under one arm, pouches of food in the other, and apologising profusely to my aunt, knowing it was perhaps insensitive of me to bring him there but there was nothing else I could think of.
Anyway, he was such a friendly little thing, so playful and affectionate, my aunt was cheered up by the thought of looking after him. She's in her 70's now, but has owned cats since she was in her teens, so I knew he'd be in safe hands. Despite him being young and an absolute vandal - he went rampaging through her house like a tornado - she was happy to look after him until we solved the mystery of where he had come from.
He looked so healthy and well cared for, we knew he must belong to someone and there must have been extenuating circumstances for him being left outside. Then this morning, my dad heard a woman calling for a cat and yay, it was his owner! Turns out she had to leave her house in a hurry on Saturday night to go to Glasgow and she thought that both her kittens were inside, but obviously one had been locked out. Returning this morning, she and her 8 year old daughter were distraught to find one missing - until my dad pointed them to my aunt's house, where said kitten was lounging on the sofa, having been spoiled all weekend! The little girl was ecstatic to find her kitten was safe and well, and my aunt was happy to have given him a 'holiday home' - caring for him had taken her mind off the initial grief of losing her own cat.
Call me soppy, but I like to think that Hamish, in the cat spirit world, saw a lost kitten and sent him in the right direction, to a kind and loving place where he was kept well fed and warm until he got back home.
No! 20 minutes later he was still outside, and it was a freezing cold night. Three days earlier, the aunt I'd been visiting had made the agonising decision to have her 20-year old cat Hamish, who was suffering from cancer, put to sleep. There was nowhere else I could go - he couldn't come into my house without giving my cat a nervous breakdown, I couldn't leave him out in the cold - so back to my aunt's house I went, kitten under one arm, pouches of food in the other, and apologising profusely to my aunt, knowing it was perhaps insensitive of me to bring him there but there was nothing else I could think of.
Anyway, he was such a friendly little thing, so playful and affectionate, my aunt was cheered up by the thought of looking after him. She's in her 70's now, but has owned cats since she was in her teens, so I knew he'd be in safe hands. Despite him being young and an absolute vandal - he went rampaging through her house like a tornado - she was happy to look after him until we solved the mystery of where he had come from.
He looked so healthy and well cared for, we knew he must belong to someone and there must have been extenuating circumstances for him being left outside. Then this morning, my dad heard a woman calling for a cat and yay, it was his owner! Turns out she had to leave her house in a hurry on Saturday night to go to Glasgow and she thought that both her kittens were inside, but obviously one had been locked out. Returning this morning, she and her 8 year old daughter were distraught to find one missing - until my dad pointed them to my aunt's house, where said kitten was lounging on the sofa, having been spoiled all weekend! The little girl was ecstatic to find her kitten was safe and well, and my aunt was happy to have given him a 'holiday home' - caring for him had taken her mind off the initial grief of losing her own cat.
Call me soppy, but I like to think that Hamish, in the cat spirit world, saw a lost kitten and sent him in the right direction, to a kind and loving place where he was kept well fed and warm until he got back home.