Not that she has been away, but our sweet little Inkie has spent the last week sulking.  We had our little cat spayed on Tuesday 2nd November.  As expected the operation was simple and we collected Inkie at 4pm from the vet the same day.  She was all cute and woozy and wearing one of those plastic cone collars to stop her licking her stitches.

At home, she was straight out of her cat box and staggering around the house, banging her plastic collar into everything.  Poor Cubbie – who had himself been sulking all day at Inkie’s absence – didn’t know what to make of her and stayed well out of her way.  Inkie didn’t care, she was too busy careering around the house and catching her collar on everything.

All was fine for two hours until Inkie decided she did not like her collar and it was coming off.  There was a bit of a scuffle as she got it stuck in her mouth and Derek and I got scratched when we tried to help her.  Then she managed to catch her claw in the strip of bandage that was tied round her neck to keep it on and undid the knot!

There was no way Derek and I were getting that collar back on, Inkie was all claws and uncooperative.  So we nipped back round to our vets – who are thankfully only a quick walk round the corner – and got her fitted with a lovely red pet surgical t-shirt.

Back home Inkie seemed much happier, still very wobbly, but she wasn’t attacking the t-shirt and it didn’t hinder her getting around.  Derek and I went to bed feeling very happy that the worst – Inkie’s operation – was over and Inkie could get on with recovering.  Inkie had other ideas

The next morning Inkie made it quite clear she was not happy.  I won’t go into all the unpleasent details, other than to say that during the week she had to wear the suit Inkie refused to use a litter tray, sat around sulking, and wouldn’t let us cuddle her.  She also put on a performance each time she moved, shaking her legs, like there was something wrong with them and behaving as though she had no sense of balance.  We actually began to worry about her until we took the suit off and she immediately returned to normal, then when the suit went back on the sulky behaviour returned.

This continued until Wednesday when we booked her in to have her stitches removed and the suit came off.  Her stitches were actually due to be removed on the Friday, but we could not take anymore of our naughty cat and fortunately the vet agreed her stitches were okay to come out early.

I’m pleased to say the transformation in Inkie, once her suit was taken off, was instant.  She is still being a bit naughty about using her litter trays, but that is our Inkie and part of that comes from the upset of being rejected by her first family.  We are just happy she is back to playing, chasing Cubbbie around the house and enjoying lots of cuddles.

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The picture of Mirage from the RSPCA website

When we first decided to go to the RSPCA and find out about adopting a cat, we looked at their website.  There were lots of lovely cats of all ages and sizes looking for homes, but one in particular caught our eye.  According to the website Mirage was a female, approximately 4 months old, who’d been found in a barn with her sisters.  We both thought she looked lovely and couldn’t wait to go and meet her.

Visiting the RSPCA shelter several things happened.  Firstly Mirage was no longer a cute little 4 month old, she’d actually been at the rehoming centre since July and she was a boy!  We were also caught out by Inkie, when we saw her curled up asleep in the same pen, it was love at first sight.  It didn’t help that Mirage is a very timid cat, and when we opened the door to the pen he disappeared through a cat flap into the sleeping compartment and we were ambushed by the very cute, cuddly Inkie and she stole our hearts.

Cubbie (Mirage)

We adopted Inkie, and we love her dearly, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Mirage and I felt sure we had room in our hearts and home for another cat.  Even though Derek had only wanted to adopt one cat, being the sweet guy he is, he phoned the RSPCA to find out more about Mirage.  Unfortunately he was told that Mirage had developed an eye infection and couldn’t be adopted until he was better.  Not to be deterred, Derek phoned back the following week to find out how Mirage was getting on.  Again he was told Mirage was still unwell, but we decided to pop along and visit him anyway.  Despite feeling very sorry for himself, wearing one of those awful plastic cone things round his head and weeping eyes, we knew we wanted to adopt Mirage and we made it official with the RSPCA staff.

It took another 10 days for Mirage to be given the all clear and we brought him home yesterday.  Derek had originally suggested we call our new arrival Puddin, because he is so soft and timid.  I was taken by his huge paws, which reminded me of a tiger cub and so sweet, timid and not very little Mirage became an official member of our family with his new name, Cubbie.

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When Inkie came to live with us she was a very stressed little kitten.  She was very lethargic and was not washing or eating, so we bought a Feliway diffuser, which is a bit like cat aromatherapy.  It releases cat pheromones into the air that help relax a cat. This worked a treat and the change in Inkie’s behaviour and appetite was almost instant.  The other change we noticed was in Inkie’s eyes.

Inkie had a half asleep look about her; she even had it when we saw her at the RSPCA.  Besides looking a bit narrow, Inkie’s eyes also had a pinched look to them, like she was squinting all the time.  We had assumed it was the way she looked, but as we get to know Inkie better we are realising it is brought on by stress.

You can see the difference in Inkie’s eyes in the picture below.

Inkie's eyes: looking stressed on the left and happy kitten eyes on the right

I am pleased to say that we hardly see this look anymore and everyday Inkie’s confidence, happiness and mischief levels are increasing.  She is a very beautiful little cat, who hasn’t had the best start in life, and  our little Inkie is a real treasure and we feel very lucky to have her in our lives.

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Inkie looking a bit glum

We’ve been a little worried about Inkie – since coming to live with us she had been a bit down.  We expected her to be nervous of her new home and little shy, but Inkie was being very clingy – following us around, not eating much and then only if we encouraged her.  She has also not been grooming herself and shown a general lack of interest in anything but sleeping.

After a weekend with her we were getting very concerned, so on Monday Derek called the RSPCA.  They told us we could bring Inkie in for a check up on Wednesday – which is their vet day – and they also mentioned something called Feliway.  We had heard of Feliway in passing, but didn’t really know what it was.  Being seriously concerned for out little cat,  we were prepared to try anything, so we popped to our vets and bought a Feliway diffuser.

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It all happened a little sooner than expected but we are very happy and excited to welcome Inkie to the family.  I had always joked that if anything happened to Treacle I would adopt a grumpy old cat from the RSPCA in his memory.  Obviously at 14 weeks old Inkie is not a grumpy old cat, but she is from the RSPCA.

Over the weekend while Derek and I were coming to terms with the loss of our cat Treacle, last Friday, we talked about adopting another cat.  I was serious about wanting an older cat, but Derek wasn’t so sure.  He felt a younger cat would adapt better to living with our bunnies.  Also, after loosing both Treacle and Custard to age related illnesses an older cat may not have been the best choice for us.

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Treacle & Custard

Treacle and Custard are brothers and were six months old when we adopted them from our local branch of The Blue Cross. It was the 13th December 1997, the last day before they closed for Christmas. It was upsetting seeing the cats of all ages looking for homes and Lindsay wanted to leave, she couldn’t choose. Derek knew better, a little silver tabby had already picked him. Every time Derek went near the pen the little cat would rub up against the bars purring, it was Treacle. Derek was sold :-), we weren’t leaving alone. There were four other cats in the pen with Treacle, as we wanted to offer a home to two cats we had the difficult job of picking another one. Our first choice was not actually Custard, the cat we chose would not come out from behind the cat loo! Custard was peering innocently out of the cat bed, so the poor little chap was grabbed and stuck in the cat box beside Treacle.

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