Near CATastrophe!!!

It's certainly is a challenging start to the year business wise and it's also been a sad one for us with the death of Irene's brother Anthony in January.

Anthony had two rescue cats from Doha but fortunately, the woman who had saved them was still on hand and able to take them in on a temporary basis. Despite the fact she was a little concerned that we already have a cat, it was decided to fly them to the Island.

Our first shock, when I picked up their box from the cargo terminal at the Airport was the sheer weight of them as our Percy is a very dainty lady, especially compared to these two. They are also very vocal, once again as opposed to our pet who either tends to give a quiet miaow or a little warble.

And so, Zaffi & Ginger were introduced into our home.

For the first few days, we barely saw them as they were experts at hiding in the tiniest nooks and crannies in the room that we had given them, despite their size but it soon emerged that there was no doubting that Zaffi was the boss.

They were quite nervous but gradually we were able to coax them out.

Percy had been aware that something was occurring and was regularly at their door, where she couldn't have missed the racket they would make but was definitely less curious now they were free to roam a little more.

Initially, it seemed she was going to be bullying them because they were too timid to pass her growling and hissing but this situation was quickly reversed when Zaffi stood up for herself and then, Percy became very withdrawn, confining herself to just a few places within the house, even spending long hours under our quilt which she has never done before.

About a week ago, Percy decided she needed to go outside and we also decided to let Ginger have a wander for the first time; Zaffi wasn't interested. Ginger came straight back in but we couldn't persuade Percy to come back through the door, although she had come into the porch, despite the bribes we were offering and the next thing she made a break for it and before I could prevent him, Ginger too had dashed past me.

This time neither would return and though we were used to Percy being out for an hour or so, we were becoming a little concerned about the tom.

Therefore, dressed to kill, wearing her old green dressing gown, Irene went into the freezing cold night to try and retrieve them and managed to pick Ginger up and bring him in.

He'd always been a little nervous but this time he just ran behind the sofa and stayed there and for some reason Zaffi was giving him a hard time too.

We began to fear when our Percy hadn't turned up the next morning that she had cut her losses and decided to leave home. Irene was becoming very worried that her what she had hoped was the right thing to do was just a total disaster.

I prepared a stack of 'Missing Cat' flyers and posters to hand around our neighbourhood and just as we were leaving home to start canvassing the nearby houses on our square, our feline loving chums and colleagues, Sha & Alex turned up to help us with our rain drenched search.

They weren't the only ones who turned up because there, just behind Irene, a bedraggled, soggy moggy popped out of next door's garden and we once again had our full complement of cats...............or so we thought.

Ginger had continued to act very strangely and wasn't moving from behind that couch, stalked at all times by a very suspicious and not at all friendly Zaffi which we thought was very strange as they had always been so close.

I needed something from the kitchen and walked past the front door where there was a big ginger cat. But I had only two seconds ago looked at our Ginger behind the sofa. I did a double take and thinking I was cracking up went back to the sofa where there was a big ginger cat.

The one that had just arrived was also wearing a green collar which had his name and our telephone number on it. The poor big ginger cat behind the sofa had been forcibly 'catnapped' off the street and had spent nearly 24 hours being traumatised, frightened half to death by Zaffi and his/her strange human captors, not to mentioned half starved as I don't think it had ventured anywhere near the food.

To this day, I haven't seen it again, so goodness knows how we have affected it. It's possibly been locked up by its owners whom I have been unable to trace to apologise to.

Anyway, one week on, we still have a very easy going Ginger, a very bossy Zaffi and our Percy who still hasn't come to terms with the presence of her new housemates (as we are assured by Mann Cat Sanctuary she eventually will.) Whether she will ever forgive us fully is another matter!