Some of you who were around a couple of years ago may remember this beautiful girl, but a lot of you wont know about her.
When we first got our allotments about five years ago, a very thin, unhappy cat arrived and started always being around when we were and demanding our attentions. Eventually she became rather friendly, always wanting lots of cuddles and love!
She was very thin, so we started to feed her - we're a family of animal lovers, how could we not?? Word on the allotment was someone brought her to 'catch mice' and 'wasn't going to feed her because that's what she was meant to do'.. now, regardless of opinions on that (I'm sure we all feel pretty similar!!), we started to feed her. Soon she was coming back every morning and every evening expecting her food... but we always had to send her back outside when we left, which made us feel far too guilty
So it happened - we installed a cat flap in the greenhouse (self built wooden one with a shed area, not one of those metal completely glass ones) and gave her a nice bed.. and soon, wow, you had to persuade her out!
We've always wanted to bring her home, but it just hasn't seemed ideal or practical. This year she's obviously getting older and it's getting quite cold, and dad always felt really sad leaving her there especially when it was cold..
After much discussion for a months we finally decided to bring her home on Friday night. We had no idea how she would react, especially to not being allowed outside and to all of the different noises etc.
She seems to be settling in quite well - she is obviously really rather nervous, and is scared of the unusual sounds, but seems okay. She has found a safe (awkward, but safe!) spot upstairs where she is spending most of her tme.. but she will happily come out for cuddles and purrs her little head off - so she's obviously not unhappy. I went in to scan some stuff earlier and she came out purring and rubbing her face against my legs and meowing at me for attention, so although nervous, I definitely don't think she's unhappy.
I'll keep you all updated! Any advice or things we might not have thought about, feel free to point them out, thanks
Some time last year,
And today, slightly blurry because I didn't want to use flash and freak her out,