Hmm Caught Again

Virgo, a vet nurse, has been telling me about a stray kitten taken to the vet's surgery where she works for re-homing for some time. He was found among the rocks of the groyne at Hillary's Boat Harbour. There's a large colony of cats living in the crevices, barely surviving on discarded fish and bait and in my son's teenage fishing days I used to watch them eyeing the fishermen from their hidey holes. Most of them are very wild so how Angus came to be caught I don't know. He's about fourteen weeks old now by the look of him but as he was starving when he was rescued he may be older. Virgo has become very attached to him. Since she lives in a unit where pets are forbidden I was little surprised when she arrived here on her way home from work with a kitten in a box and a "Can you do me a favour and look after Angus?"

Given I already share my life with a needy dog and a neurotic cat (another abandoned rescue kitten) this is not something I am too sure about. If she can't get the owner's permission to have a pet when the lease is renewed, and as she intends to travel in the near future, I can see him becoming mine and taking on another cat is not something I had planned.

But what can you do? Angus is a pretty little fellow - a silvery grey tabby - and very cuddly. At present he is confined to one room except when I let him out for a game and explore. Already very cross because he is still having to be force fed antibiotics to deal with an infection, Cadillac is not happy about any of it. He started by hissing and growling but now has resigned himself to just keeping as much distance as he can between them.

The fact that Angus is silvery grey, and has discovered most of the places the evicted rodent was living in are great hiding places, is not helping his acceptance by cat or dog. They see him streak across the floor where they had seen the rat and immediately assume it's back. So playtime has to be closely supervised. Virgo has been coming here each day to help dose the cat - a two person job - and can't resist playing with Angus which invariably ends up with extracting him from some of his more inconvenient hiding places. This reignites the conviction of other two that the rat is back and there is much barking and and excitement as they try to predict which path he will take. They are invariably left milling around in total confusion because he usually heads straight up onto someone's shoulder where he settles down like a purring kitten brooch.

Yes, he is a sweet little creature but what kitten isn't? I haven't agreed to take him on permanently yet. The thought of another cat mentally scarred by its kittenhood is a bit daunting. We shall wait and see.