Love at first sight (Rescued Cats)

Member Name: indychick_uk

Product:	Rescued Cats
Date:	30/10/01 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Absolute, unconditional love

Disadvantages: Going to a CPL rescue shelter can be quite traumatic, You'll be hoovering up cat hair for ever

When I met Simpson it was love at first sight. Even though he was injured and in pain he still came out to greet me with a purr and I knew I was smitten, but I'm starting in the middle of the story so let me start at the beginning.

As long as I can remember I've wanted a cat. From about the age of five the first item on every Christmas and Birthday present list was "A cat" but unfortunately my father had inherited a fear of cats from his mother and so I was never allowed one. By the time I reached my teens I realised I was never going to have a cat whilst I still lived at home so I stopped asking for one and instead vowed to everyone who would listen that the first thing I'd do when I left home was to get a cat.

When I first moved away from home at the age of 18 it was to go to University in Bristol where I lived in a shared student house and as I still lived at home during holidays it wasn't possible to get a cat. After graduating I moved back home as I had a job close to my home town and living at home was the cheapest accommodation option so here I was at 21 and still no cat.

At the age of 24 I finally moved out of home permanently and into a rented furnished flat with my boyfriend. At last I thought I was going to fulfil my dream, until I discovered that under the terms of the lease we were'nt allowed pets. However during the time I was living in the flat I did get a part share in a cat. Our neighbours, Dawn and Glenn, had a ginger tom named Toby who looked like a bruiser but was in fact a total pussycat. Dawn and Glenn didn't have a catflap so he had to cry to get in but he discovered very quickly that he could "knock" at our door and we'd let him in! Our letterbox was very close to the ground and he would push his nose under the flap, raise it up then let it fall. Our flat was on the first floor and the door was at ground level and, fool that I am, I would walk down the flight of stairs
to let him in! My boyfriend was as soft on cats as I am and we were quite happy to have him curled up on the sofa with us. Dawn and Glenn became very good friends of ours and were never surprised to come round to our flat for a drink and discover Toby, their cat, curled up in front of the fire. Unfortunately Toby came to a very sad end, he was attacked by a greyhound outside our flats and killed. I was as upset as Dawn & Glenn about this and felt as though I'd lost a pet of my own.

Three years after we'd moved into the flat, my boyfriend and I decided to buy a house of our own and in July 1997 we moved in. I lasted a whole week before I made the call to the Cats Protection League to see if I could rehome one of their cats! I said that I wanted an older cat, not a kitten, as both myself and my boyfriend worked full-time, and I would also prefer a male cat and a long-haired cat but I wasn't really that fussed what it looked like. The lady on the phone told me they only had one long-haired male at that time and he wasn't going to be available for re-homing for at least a month as he was injured. She told me he'd been handed in to them with a broken leg and that the vet initially thought he may have been shot as there was a puncture wound. He'd been operated on to put a pin in his hip and they'd not found a pellet so they decided the puncture wound was from the bone poking through and it was most likely he'd been kicked. As she told me this story I could feel myself being drawn to this cat already. I'm a complete sucker for a hard luck story and my mum had always said that when I did get a cat it would probably be one with only three legs or one eye! I said I'd like to see him and I didn't mind waiting for him – I'd already waited 27 years to get a cat so another month didn't matter. I arranged to go and visit him with the couple who were looking after him that weekend. That Saturday afternoon we drove
ovwer to their house and they took us out to the cattery in their garden where they had three cats – and there he was. He looked so sad, because of the pin he was in a very small cage to stop him moving about to much but despite that the pin had moved and was pressing on his sciatic nerve and so he was in a lot of pain. As they opened his cage he stretched and moved stiffly out of his cramped quarters and into the main area of the cattery. I reached out my hand to him and he rubbed his face against it and started purring, my boyfriend and I just looked at each other as if to say "He's the one!". The CPL told us he wasn't going to be rehomed till he was signed off by the vet which would be another 4 or 5 weeks so if we didn't want to wait we could look at another cat. "No, we'll have him" we said very quickly and in unison!

Those four weeks waiting were awful, I visited Simpson (his CPL name was Glenn, but we'd decided having a cat with the same name as one of our friends wasn't on) as often as I could and gave him a toy which he could bring with him when he came to live with us so he had something familiar. I bought a litter tray, a cat flap, bowls, food and a scratching post and eventually the day arrived when we could adopt him.

When he first came home he was very nervous, several months in a tiny cage had made him slightly agoraphobic and he lived under our bed for a week but hours of patient work making friends with him paid off and he finally emerged to explore his new home.

That was over 6 years ago and now he is completely a part of my life (unlike the boyfriend who left 2 years ago). There is no trace of the frightened animal who first arrived in my home, just a completely gorgeous, affectionate, and slightly mad cat.

It's so wonderful to have him sharing my life and to know I've been able to give him such a good life after his early life experiences. And I'm
now a member of The Cat Protection League and support them whenever I can

And I'm still in love with him!

Please visit The Cats Protection League at their homepage - www.cats.org.uk

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