Le Chat Noir

We went to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home last weekend, to have a look at the cats that needed a new home. We've been mulling this over for ages, after the Burmese kitten we were going to get last year died, along with the whole litter, before we could bring him home. The registration process is quite long winded, I guess they want to make sure that their inmates are not going to need rehousing straight away again. NB It seems to be the ideal workplace for self-harming Goth girls.

We had a good look around the cattery, and all of the mogs that we liked the look of were either categorised as not suitable to live with other cats, or had already been snapped up. Then we saw a very shy little black puss that had been picked up as a stray a few weeks earlier. He'd been sitting around in the cattery for a while because he was so timid he didn't really sell himself. After waiting ages we finally got an assistant to let us have a look at him, and she gave him the big sell. She was quite genuine in her bigging up though, and when we agreed to take him she gave us a free cat basket, blankets and loads of food. They micro-chipped him before we left, and he endured a nightmare ride home with me behind the wheel again.

This is all we saw of him for the first few days:


But he's opening up a bit now, and this morning didn't even bolt under the sofa when I went into his room. He's currently living in the study/spare bedroom. We bring him down to the living room in the evening. He doesn't seem to mind being picked up, but is incredibly jumpy, any sudden movements, and he's off like a shot to the darkest corner he can find.



At Battersea they called him Quincy for some reason, but we've re-named him Treacle Tar-Baby (geddit?). When he's finally relaxed he's far more affectionate than Pud and is already easing his way onto our laps. They estimated his age as 3-4 but I think he's younger than Pud, and certainly a lot less chubby.



All that remains now is for us to introduce him to Pud, which may take a few weeks. They suggest swapping their blankets over so that they get used to each others smell, but Pud doesn't have a blanket, and doesn't like the idea of being rubbed down with one either. Ah well I'm sure it will be fine.