Meet Moo, The Cat Who Came to Stay
A few days ago I noticed that something was eating some of the soaked pig food and I was a bit worried we had got a rat family again. A couple of days after I seeing this I went to make up the pig food and as I opened the feed bin something dashed out of it and over my shoulder. Well, I can tell you THAT shortened by life by a good few days as I assumed it was a rat. But it wasn't. It was in fact a kitten who was now mewing pitifully at me from the safety of the hedge. It was as though she wanted me to touch her but as soon as I got too near she backed off, just out of reach. From her state you could tell that she was living wild and was obviously very hungry. So I left her some meat and went in. The next day she was still around but I still could not catch her. A day later a friend lent us a cat trap but as luck would have it we didn't need to use it. We found the kitten in the feed shed again and in her moment of indecision as to whether she would better escape us via the window or by dropping down behind the freezer I was able to grab her.
And this was how we came to be adopted by the cat we now call Moo.
On catching her it was immediately apparent how desperately thin she was; she was literally no more than skin, fur and bone and you could see her spine and hips bones clearly, even through her coat. Simon and I whisked her into the safety of a cat basket where she hungrily scoffed some meat and biscuits and drank her fill of water. In all this time she was noticeably nervous of us but never hissed or tried to scratch us. She had an infection causing her to have gummed up eyes and nostrils, a bloody ear plus ticks, fleas and probably worms. We wormed and flea treated her, lifted off all the ticks and booked her a trip to the vet. There, the vet confirmed that she did have an infection and a temperature so gave her a course of antibiotics. She also confirmed what we thought, that despite Moo's tiny size (she weighs a mere 1.5kg) she is in fact between 6 and 8 months old.
A handful of days on it is as though we have a different animal and she will allow us all to hold and stroke her and is incredibly cuddly. However she is still easily spooked and it took us a while to get her out from behind the washing machine when I scared her, not realising she was in the bathroom. She also hid when we had a thunderstorm and perhaps, most sad of all, she is terrified of chains as we found out when we picked up Saari's lead, which is a chain. The poor little mite took off and it took us ages to calm her down. She also has a problem where one of her back legs appears to dislocate which we think might be because she is so thin there is no muscle to help hold the bones in place. We are hoping with time and good nutrition this will sort itself out.
Most people get chocolate for Easter. This Easter we got adopted, instead, by a little kitten/cat called Moo. I really do not know how much longer she would have survived in the wild but something told her to come to Eco-Gites of Lenault where, so long as she chooses, she is more than welcome to stay for ever.
