Go to 8th of September 2024 for latest update
Thursday 22nd of August 2024
On Sunday, 28th of July, I was playing Badminton with my granddaughter at the green outside our house, when we heard a distressed miaowing. I’d heard it before, a few times, tried to work out where it was coming from, but couldn’t figure it out. It was coming from a block of flats – wrapped in scaffolding, on the same green where our house sits.
On this day, we both went right up to the fences and started calling out, and the miaowing kept on getting closer. Suddenly, a furry black cat with beautiful yellow eyes, appears, running on top of the fences, towards us.
It got to the fence right in front of us but couldn’t seem to be able to get down – so I picked my granddaughter up, she got the cat – easily, it didn’t fight, it wanted to be picked up and, well, there we were. Hello beautiful cat!
She had the softest fur! In pristine condition, no lesions anywhere – very healthy looking with bright white teeth. I thought maybe her keepers – cats don’t have owners 😉 – were on holiday, or ill, or maybe passed away recently. Whatever it was, it was very recent – as the crying had only been going on for a few days.
My granddaughter named her Precious…
First time meeting Precious. We gave her some food and sat with her for a while.
The next day she was there again. So we fed her again and sat down with her for a while…
On the 30th of July, I got Precious to come to the front of my house. I thought I’d let her in and see what happened. If it worked out – and she was indeed stray – I would take care of her. There’s a cat living in our house already, Rusty. She was also a stray who turned up in our garden, had 7 kittens, and has been with us for 13 years. If it went OK with Rusty I was considering adding another cat to our family. That attempt backfired – I got a couple of scratches from that. She’d let me pick her up, but not bring her to the house.
So, slowly over the next two days, I was coming out, calling her and feeding her in front of the house, while sitting next to her and leaving the front door open. But I couldn’t do much more as we were going on holiday the next week. My granddaughter was sad but I reassured her that Precious would be fine. I wasn’t even convinced she was a stray anyway and thought this was probably a temporary situation.
We got back on the 8th of August, but no sign of Precious anywhere. I thought her people had maybe returned from holiday, or whatever the situation was, it had been resolved. Maybe someone picked her up, took her to a shelter…
Little did I know that many people – actually: women, of course! – had been looking out for Precious.
Then on August the 14th she appeared on the green again. I got the container with her food out, opened the door, kept shaking it, until she came inside the house. There was a lot of growling and hissing towards Rusty. Rusty was very calm and, even submissive?! No hostility on her part whatsoever. But Precious was very hostile and distressed, so I spent the next few days letting her in the house, but keeping Rusty away. So I’d put Rusty in the kitchen with door closed, let Precious in, guide her to the living room, close the door, let Rusty go around the house. Then I’d let Precious out after a while and they’d be studying each other from a safe distance. I’d be going in between, stroking one, then going to the other – so they’d get used to each other’s smell. This sort of dance happened for a few days…
Meanwhile, I’d been meeting all the other lovely women who had been petting and feeding the very charming & friendly Precious. You’d think she was naive and careless, but:
a) She wouldn’t let herself be taken anywhere. I could pick her up but if I started walking, she’d claw her way out (I only tried that once). The doorcam of that attempt is quite hilarious.
b) When I was feeding her outside my house, she’d be very spooked by passers by and often run away when she heard footsteps. After a few days she relaxed a bit more.
She seemed very friendly but very cautious (a good trait in any creature).
On one occasion I had a word with a group of people with dogs, one of which was chasing Precious on the bushes she hides. I told them there was a cat there and they said they knew and that their huge dog wouldn’t hurt her. I wasn’t pleased. What a ridiculous, ignorant assumption to make! Of course the cat would be terrified if an unknown, huge dog was chasing them. The entitlement! I made my views clear and asked them to put their huge dog on a lead and, thankfully, they did.
On Sunday the 18th I met and had a longer chat with A., she was outside my house petting Precious, and I explained the situation. I didn’t know if she was stray or not. I didn’t know if I could take her in, as I was trying to assess how my own cat would take it. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to take on the extra responsibility, as I had agreed with myself not to have any more cats after Rusty (mostly due to having to arrange care when we go away, plus distressing trips to the vet + vet bills). A. contacted a cat shelter the next day and got someone with a portable scanner to come to the green. By Wednesday this started to transpire:
* Precious was microchipped and a potential fosterer was trying to get in touch with her keeper.
* On the 21st of August, in the afternoon, I said I’d keep on taking care of her, instead of her going through the stress of being taken away from her territory.
* Later on, in the evening, A. texted me saying the keeper had replied and they lived on the flats near the green (as I suspected).
* The scaffolding has caused the cat to escape and not finding her way back. The keeper has tried to pick her up to bring her back with similar scratchy results to me…
* At this point I had counted four people feeding Precious! But there were many more to come.
On the 21st of August, Wednesday, around 9pm, I was coming back home, walking through the green, when I saw Precious running around, and then two young foxes running around too. I’d been worried about her getting hurt by foxes, although if she’d survived this long, it was clear she could take care of herself – and foxes don’t usually attack cats. The foxes ran off and Precious followed me home. That night she stayed indoors until 3am – at that point she was very insistent to be let out, so I showed her the cat flap again – she didn’t quite get it, I opened the garden door and off she went into the night. In my mind the situation at this point was I’d keep an eye on her/feed her, etc until the scaffolding was gone.
I messaged A. to tell her what’s been going on and also to ask for contact details for her keeper – it then turns out the keeper wanted to find a better home for Precious… Who, by the way IS A BOY!?!!!! We all thought Precious was a girl, such a pretty face. But no, he’s a boy. Once I found that out I decided, after talking to my husband, to try and make it work. I was relieved he is a boy. One of my worries about keeping Precious was pregnancy, like what happened with Rusty. It was fun having kittens once, but it was also hard work. Also, it’s better to have opposite sex cats living together – as they see each other as less competition.
During the day I scanned Precious through the cat flap so he can come and go. At the moment he only goes out the cat flap and in through the front door, so we have to see him outside and let him in. Hopefully he’ll soon workout he can come in through the garden.
On the evening of the 22nd, I got Precious in (keeping the name my gd gave him, it’s pretty gender neutral anyway!). Yet another woman (this one with a cute little dog) had fed him earlier! We got chatting when I came out to find Precious. Another one of the women feeding him also passed by and I gave her an update. He was lying on the sofa from 7pm until midnight, mostly sleeping. Didn’t eat anything. I let Rusty in the living room after he’d been there for a couple of hours and they were in the same room, peacefully. At one point Rusty went to sniff Precious, and Precious didn’t move and growled half-heartedly.
Rusty taking a sniff at Precious
I messaged A. asking for more info on Precious first thing in the morning. He’s 2 years old, born in March 2022, and he’s been neutered. We were talking about how lucky Precious is, so many people looking out for him and A. mentioned the book “Six Dinner Sid” by Inga Moore – hence me calling this post Six Dinner Precious when I first published this. [note: since then I renamed it Mr. P. Squeaks, a new cat in our life]
Today, Precious showed up in the morning, as he has done on most days. I let him in. He went straight to the kitchen, so I fed him and Rusty at the same time, but on separate plates and with some distance between them. Precious kept trying to go for Rusty’s food, so I had to redirect him to his own area a couple of times. Rusty has been so calm about this. I’ve seen her hiss and growl at random cats in the garden, she can be quite fierce.
Rusty and Precious eating at the same time.
Precious going for Rusty’s food.
He went out the cat flap, then later on came back again, but still using the front door, he always comes back to the front of the house. I’d like him to independently come in/out eventually.
A. also told me she’d been posting on the Cats of Tooting Facebook group – that’s where she found a cat fosterer with a scanner. I joined the group today and asked for people to stop feeding him (there were more than six! So maybe it’s more “Who knows how many?” Dinner Precious) because he’s going to end up overweight and it’ll interfere with my effort to get him into a routine. Cats are very good at learning feeding times, but if people keep randomly feeding him I’ve no chance of establishing a routine.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/214459359298674/permalink/1755381771873084
Yesterday, it rained hard all day, no sign of Precious in the morning, when he usually comes in. But at 3pm he showed up, miaowing outside (my gd heard him). We opened the door and he was soaking wet!!!! He came in, let us dry him while he ate, then left soon after.
He showed up again at 11pm, came in, had some cuddles in the bedroom. I fell asleep so no idea when he got out. But this morning he was outside the door first thing. He still hasn’t quite gotten the cap flap trick.
I decided his surname is ‘Squeaks’ because that boy does the cutest squeaky noise I ever heard! He has a strong miaow, but sometimes he squeaks. It’s a ruse, obviously, to make him extra endearing.
Update: At around 4pm today, Sunday, he finally made it through the flap on his own. We spend a lot of time calling him through it yesterday, and he’s worked it out. Will need to activate the microchip reading soon. He’s currently upstairs. Made his way up for the first time on his own. So… I guess he’s calling this place home? I wonder how many homes he has 😀
Things went well yesterday. Precious Squeaks came and went a few times. He slept here as well – he’s come in around 10:30/11pm and stays indoors until 3ish am. Then comes back first thing in the morning, eats, goes out, comes back at lunchtime, stays for a couple of hours then off again until bedtime.
Granddaughter and I were talking just now and decided on a final name: “Mr. P. Squeaks”. I renamed this post Mr. P. Squeaks, a new cat in our life
Yesterday we were working on getting Squeaks through the cat flap using the microchip unlock, but it wasn’t working for him. The lock was unlocking when he was halfway through. So my husband increased the range on the cat flap and I put the camera by the cat flap to monitor things. Didn’t really see much of him, he came in a couple of times through the front door for food, but wasn’t around in the evening (it was warm).
When I got up and went down the stairs I was delighted to see his little face at the bottom of the stairs! He had made finally made it through on his own!
Rusty spent the whole night sat by the cat flap. We noticed she’d been sitting by the cat flap in the evenings, even before Mr P Squeaks showed up, but I didn’t realise she sat there all night until I looked at the footage!
I find myself calling him the Prince of Darkness every now and then! PoD!
Made an album for him on Flickr
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBEsr6
It’s official!!!! As of today Mr Precious Squeaks is officially his name and I’m registered as his keeper on PETtrac database (4.3 rating from 170 reviews on trustpilot). Rusty is registered with Identibase database (4.7 rating from 3,200 reviews on trustpilot). Until today I didn’t even realise there were different databases, I thought it was a single centralized one. I’d like to have them on the same one. If I wanted to transfer Rusty to PETtrac (which is a bigger database) it’d cost £12. It also cost £12 to transfer Squeaks over to me. Defra Compliant Pet Microchip Databases In The UK and What are the government approved pet microchip databases in the UK?
As if he knew, he gifted us with a vomited black hairball on the living room rug this morning – as a thank you, no doubt! He’s been more and more affectionate. I thought Rusty was bad following me around and staring at me, but he’s giving her a run for her money. He’s currently sitting by my feet and staring up at me. He has jumped up on the table a few times, rubbing his scent on my coffee mug, my laptop, my hands… He is such a beautiful cat with such a lovely presence. At night he’s like a tiny black hole as he’s so black, he almost doesn’t look real.
They both have their own dry food dispenser (PETLIBRO Automatic Cat Feeder) now and meal times are quite funny. We have to make sure they each go to the right feeder and there’s a bit of chaos but they’ll get it. Rusty’s dry food is for elderly cats and his, obviously, is not. I got one for Rusty earlier this year because we were going away for a few days and I didn’t want to ask the neighbour to feed her multiple times a day (I feed her small portions a few times a day, otherwise she devours it all at once) and was so impressed by it now it’s the way we feed her dry food, 3 small portions a day.
I also feed them wet food once a day and I’m carrying on with Encore.
I always felt that Rusty was a very special sort of cat – she is definitely the most dog like cat I’ve ever looked after. She comes whenever I call her, it doesn’t matter if she’s asleep under the bed, she’ll get up and come if she hears my call. She loves to sit on my lap and get stroked and makes a lot of eye contact. She demands attention a few times throughout the day, but she also has learned not to beg for food, she knows when it’s time and is very calm about it. She is 13 years old and she’s still playing with stuffed toys – especially if I put catnip inside! She likes to watch bird TV. She still hunts – we have rescued a number of birds. Although this summer she hasn’t brought anything, last summer we rescued two birds from her claws.
I assumed/hoped that Squeaks would be playful too, once he settled, but so far, nothing. Nothing I try works. He pushed a ball away once and that was as far as it went. When we sat on the grass one day he briefly played with a stick. Catnip has no effect on him. He just seems to be obsessed with food and breaking into the cat feeder. He follows me around whenever I got to the kitchen. And whenever I do cat voice with him, Rusty thinks I’m talking to her, so she comes running. He tries to break into cat food bags, he even enlisted Rusty to help him. I wonder how long until he finds a way into the automatic feeder. He was sat on top of it yesterday, trying to open it. He must have been starving as he gets totally desperate when it’s time for wet – jumping on the table, trying to get to the can – I now keep them out of the kitchen while I’m dishing out the food.
Trying to break into the food bag