Introductions All Round

The kitty you see in the blog photo is Sihri. She has just been desexed and is about 7 months old. She came to me via a neighbour who was at the local farm supplies store earlier in the year when a man approached her with a box. He said it contained two feral kittens he had found on his property and he wanted to know where the local pound was. She said she would take them, and then – knowing that I rehabilitated cats – she promptly rang me up and asked me if I would take them as in two days time she was flying to Alaska for six months and could not look after them herself. I said yes (I was looking after five other feral kittens so two more wouldn't have made much of a difference) and she turned up five minutes later with the box. 

The rest of my family went ballistic when they found out and I began weeping from the frustration of not knowing what to do and having to pass the poor little things on again down the line. Before I even had time to examine them properly, I had to ring up the Cat Protection Society in Sydney. The woman on the phone was able to discern what I was saying in between sobs and told me to drive them to the shelter when I had a chance. I said I would do it the next day.

In the meantime, I opened the box and looked in. Huddled on an old towel behind a white baby's cushion were two tiny females not older than four weeks. One was champagne and white and her sister was calico coloured (which is basically a grey tortoiseshell). They hissed at me and looked absolutely terrified and traumatised. They were also starving because when I put in some food for them, they lurched themselves onto the plate without a second look at me. I suppose Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs applies to animals too.

When the others family members saw how tiny the kittens were, they relented. When they saw how well they bonded with me several weeks later, they said they could stay. (Please note that I will post later on about the differences in the bonding journey between all of my feral cats. You will also find out about Sihri's sister Sasha.)

This pic was taken in the front garden a few days ago. My friend J calls Sihri a little Hollywood glamour cat and indeed she is. At the moment she is lolling between my legs and the recliner chair from which I am working. I also have a little black and white boy who was wild about ten days ago but who is now standing on my chest purring and licking my face and playing footsies (or pawsies) with my hair. Did I tell you how wonderful cats are?