Monday, May 24, 2010

Meet Jemima

AKA Lost & Found Kitten. She was picked up wandering in the road near my local pub and brought in by someone who thought she was lost. We took her home, checked with the vet the next day to see if she was microchipped (she wasn't) or matched a description on their lost animals database (she didn't). As advised by the vet, we took her back to the area where she was found and released her: judging by her behaviour, she was probably an indoor cat who'd escaped. She was a friendly little cat, not scared of humans, and although she ate and ate when I put food down for her, she clearly wasn't starved. She was even wearing a flea collar. She was clearly someone's pet.

I missed her...until later that day, when she trotted down the road and up to the front door. Er, well. Clearly she didn't want to leave us!

We put up FOUND posters everywhere and looked for LOST posters that might correspond. Two people called about our ad, but both missing cats were male, older than L&FK (as she was then known--naming her would make it even harder to give her up!) and had different colouring. Nobody called for over a week.

Then a big mean tomcat turned up outside the house. I mean, really big and really mean--tattered ears and a face like a fist with fur on it. He started yowling, and it occurred to us that we'd got a young female cat who showed no recent signs of being spayed (with Sugar and Daisy, it took well over a month for the shaved fur to grow back, and if you looked carefully you could still see it). Tomcat was looking for a good time!

So we took her to the vet, who agreed she probably hadn't been spayed and that, if it had been two weeks with no claims on her, then we might as well keep her. We booked her in to be spayed (which unfortunately means we have to keep her inside, away from the clutches of the Mean Old Tomcat, and we'd only just started getting her used to the cat flap). I put a proper collar on her. I ordered a tag.

 Her name is Jemima. Isn't she pretty?

15 comments:

  1. Oh, she's just gorgeous! I'm so glad she's found her perfect home with you. :)

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  2. She's adorable! She looks very nicely settled in her new home too. Good for her. :)

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  3. Doesn't look as if she's missing anyone, and she clearly made her choice. Shoo Tomcat, go away!

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  4. She is beeyoootiful!

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  5. She's beautiful! Aw, now I want a kitten of my own even more.

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  6. Thanks guys! She's a little sweetheart too, so friendly and cuddly, although she has a hair-trigger for annoyance. One minute she's all "Tickle my belly!" and the next she's decided she's had enough and since you haven't noticed in the split second it took to make her decision, she's going to savage your hand.

    Still, I like a cat with spirit.

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  7. Ah. That'll be the tortie side of her.

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  8. She has ginger stripes on her head--bit of a a redhead? My previous ginger cat was feisty too. Lazy, but feisty. Had the same hair-trigger "I'm fed up with this now" switch.

    Keeps life interesting.

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  9. Both my ginger cats are pussycats. Er, obviously.

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  10. That's what our Lucy is like. Love love love BITE.
    Jemima is a sweetie. I've loved following her story on Twitter!
    Immi
    x

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  11. She's adorable and obviously meant to be YOUR cat. She knows exactly where she wants to be. And, she stood up to Demon Puppy!!! Does life get any better than that?

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  12. Adorable. I'm glad she found you, Demon Puppy and the rest of the crew.

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  13. She's gorgeous! So glad she's found her forever home with you!

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  14. She's beautiful. She's also very annoyed that she now has stitches in her side and a cone on her head so I'm unfortunately not her favourite person.

    But in a few weeks' time when Mean Old Tomcat turns up again she'll thank me!

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  15. She's beautiful and almost a twin for my Gloria. (Don't judge me by the name - that was RSPCA's idea.)

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