Only Three Days

I really didn't three days at work would wipe me out so much. I hope I get better at this! I have some more washing to get done for monday (now there's a revelation) and of course today is roast dinner day...not that I've got anything to roast (oops).

Little Miss seems to be over the *chickenpox* if indeed thats what it was, all spots are fading and not one of them seemed to blister. Maybe it was just a mild case, we'll soon know if youngest boy develops spots won't we?

Yesterday we had to do something I found most disturbing, and as a pet owner it's not something I thought I would do. We had to rehome our last cat, Chaung was it seems terrorising the neighbourhood. I didn't know this until about a month ago when a neighbour knocked on the door looking very worried and said "Karen, I don't quite know how to say this..." not the best start to a conversation. She went on to tell me how Chaung had been systematically stalking and terrorising her cat, she had even had to take hers to the vets a few times due to fairly nasty injuries. I as horrified of course and assured her yes he was "done" and I'd ring the vets to see if they could suggest anything. I rang the vets and they suggested something called Feliway as they thought he might be suffering from anxiety and this is upposed to help. I duly ran out and bought this thing, it takes about four weeks to have an effect so I gave it that. Then I get a call from a friend of mine who lives at the back of us, this is when I find out that all the cats in the adjoining gardens have been attacked by my boy and some of them have required vet hospital treatment! Turns out he's been doing this for years, and the reason my friend was telling me now was because Chaung had badly bitten a cat that lived near her and she'd found out about it. I then went and knocked on doors and yes, it seems that all I spoke to had cats who would no longer venture out.I decided to take Chaung to the vets, hoping a physical examination might reveal some treatable problem. When I took him he was an angel (of course) and she looked him over, declared what a handsome boy he was and when I told her my problem said "Oh I've heard of him!" oh dear notoriety at the vets. The vet checked him all over and said she didn't think there was anything wrong with him, she couldn't see any obvious signs of hormonal problems as he didn't have any particular tom cat traits, and she asked some questions and then said apart from fairly rare neurological problems she couldn't think of anything that would be wrong with him. She and I came to the same conclusion that he was just being a cat and thought it was all his territory.

The end result of all this angst is I decided to rehome him. Not my favourite especially as this means no cat in the house, however he has bitten little Miss when in a mood (oh and she was standing on him), so his aggression is not limited to neighbours gardens.

I phoned a burmese cat rescue at the beginning of the week and they said they would take him in. So yesterday I phoned them to find out if it was still ok, the lady said she'd had a call yesterday morning and a lady who lived near us was after a cat. I asked if she'd explained his problems and she said yes, so I called this prospective owner. She sounded ever so excited and said she lived in a house that backed onto loads of fields and near a golf course, we discussed the fact that he was so territorial but to be honest if he's got a big territory without other cats he might not fight so much. There is one child in the house but he's ten and so hopefully able to read the signs of cat annoyance before they turn to scratching or biting. The woman and her son came to see Chaung yesterday, you could see they thought he was gorgeous, they stroked and loved him and of course he lapped it up... it was a done deal as soon as they saw him.

So I am now catless, not a state I am used to, I feel slightly happier with the situation of rehoming as we didn't have to take him somewhere to await a proper home, hopefully he will settle and love his new surroundings. I've been promised updates so we should get to hear how he's doing.

Today I am going to do all the usual, and not trawl the internet for a kitty looking for a home.