CATS THAT WALK ON THE WILD SIDE…….

In September 2014 we moved to a converted farm building. Tucked away, at the end of a lane backing on to neighbouring barns and sheds.

We had three dogs (all rescues) and had recently lost our family cat.

There were a lot of cats in the neighbourhood with all of our neighbours having at least one. They strolled about without a care in the world.

A few weeks in a small, very pretty, tabby and white cat appeared. Very nervous, disappearing from view every time we left the house, she was different to the rest. It became apparent she wasn’t owned by anyone and so our relationship began. Over the next 4 years ‘Minnie’ got used to us, became grateful for the regular source of ‘easy’ food and became confident enough to cross the threshold to the house at meal times. Eventually, and with a lot of gentle encouragement and patience, she spent more time in the house with the dogs just accepting her.

The last three years of Minnie’s life were spent mainly inside in total luxury!! She loved to be outside in the warm weather but during the winter she had a bed in a window (plus several others dotted about), and loved looking out over her domain from a centrally heated house. She wasn’t prepared to be picked up or cuddled and when she was outside she wouldn’t let us go near her! But her favourite spot in the evening was stretched out on my Husband’s chest in front of the TV and she spent her nights on top of the SKY box because it was warm…….. We hadn’t realised that she was a mature cat when we met her and, last year, having become thin and ‘not right’ she tolerated a visit to the vet. It was discovered that she was probably 12 to 14 and had a mass in her chest that was inoperable. We didn’t mess about. She had lived a good life, allowed us to lift her into the cat carrier, and accepted, for the very first time, the gentle hands of those of us lucky enough to know and love her to cuddle her. Her time had come and she let us share her quiet and gentle passing.

Minnie changed our entire outlook about cats. We know that for most people a domestic cat is the ideal but, for those of us who have the space, taking on a feral or semi-feral cat is incredibly rewarding. Like all cats, each is an individual who dances to their own tune, they live life and interact with us on their terms.

In October last year we heard of a semi-feral cat at Holly Hedge called Rosa, she had been there for a year having come from a farm. As it happened she was tabby and white! We knew we could offer her a home, on her terms, with no hope or expectation of anything more than minimal interaction. The deal…….. Safe and comfortable shelter, food and a watchful eye for injury or illness. It would have been wrong to expect anything more. We simply wanted her to be ‘free range’ and have a permanent home base.

Turns out Rosa is very much ‘feral lite……’ After keeping her safe and secure in the space we had set up for her for a couple of months we set her ‘free’. Turns out that freedom to Rosa involves never straying far from her home turf, spending lots of time in any one of her three beds and ‘apartments’ and knowing, pretty much to the minute, when breakfast and supper is due!

She now routinely comes into the utility to eat and often pops into the office to check things out. She remains wary of hands and anything that suggest she might be ‘caught’ and that will probably never change. But, as with Minnie before her, she is gaining in confidence, is rooted to her environment and increasingly curious about us. We have already come to love her, entirely on her terms of course!

Who knows, one day she may even end up inside looking out……..