Rescuing Theo

Whenever I used to walk to my sisters house down a particular road, or during the two years I actually lived at hers, I would often see two fluffy/scruffy looking black cats who seemed to live there. Both were very friendly and would mew a lot and follow you to be stroked, or maybe just because they wanted food.

One day, the more sociable one of the two followed me home. It was a lovely thing, incredibly fluffy and affectionate.

However quite a few months down the line (after a freezing winter) I realised I hadn't seen that one of the pair for a long time, and the quieter one seemed to be about less too. When we came across the other one, it came to say hello and as we were stroking it we realised what awful condition it was in. Its hair was matted and falling out, its skin was bad and its spine was sticking out dreadfully and when picking it up later it was as light as a feather, just like a bag of bones!

When with the cat and realising its condition I asked some of the local children playing out if they knew who owned it and what had happened to its sibling. It turned out the poor thing had died over the winter. It was upsetting and if its condition was anything like this one's it was no wonder!

They didn't pinpoint the owners, so we let the cat follow us home (just round the corner) and gave him/her something to eat. The poor thing was starving and very thirsty too. It also had a very strong odor due to its bottom being dirty and its tail fur being matted up with dirt, as well as having runny eyes and having a tooth missing, so eating very messily.

Even though not as confident as its brother/sister, this cat too was extremely affectionate and wanted attention as well as something to eat.

I think it was the next day we fed the cat properly and my sister met it and saw what an awful state it was in and she was horrified. She took some photo's as evidence of animal cruelty as it was evident we were going to have to call the R.S.P.C.A to help this cat if it was going to survive and not suffer anymore from the neglect from its owners. However at this point we weren't sure if its owners were still around here or whether they'd just left the two cats to fend for themselves.

I took a couple of photo's myself at this point but you can't see from them just how bad a state he was in.

Skinny and Starving

 I was the one to call up the R.S.P.C.A and report the state of the cat to try and get him some help. The reaction I got however was disgusting and I won't be using their services again or donating to them.

They basically weren't the faintest bit interested unless he was unconscious and were going to do absolutely nothing about it. I was so angry when I got off the phone.

We weren't sure what to do at first, but then thought we would have to try the animal shelter that I had briefly volunteered at, the Humane Education Society in Wilmslow.  So we gave them a call. I explained the situation to them but currently they were full, however when I said how urgent it was they said they would try and get him a place as soon as possible but he would have to be checked for cat flu first as to not put the other cats there at risk.

Click here for their site

We took him to the vets to get him assessed. They told us that the cat was a boy - we hadn't known yet and Morgan (my 10 year old nephew) had given him or her the temporary name of Starblade.

The vet thought he was in awful condition and said he wouldn't have lasted many more days if we hadn't started to care for him. So basically if we'd left it in the hands of the R.S.P.C.A he would have been dead.

He was extremely underweight, extremely matted and in bad condition but the vet tried to assess a rough age and estimated 11, however the next vet to see him a week or so later estimated about 14, so he was an old boy. He took tests for Cat Flu and then for the next week or so we were to care for him until a space came up.

We decided since we knew now it was a boy, to come up for a name for him. So me, my nephew and my brother wrote a list of names and then whittled it down using a dice. The final name was Theodore, which I think suited him so well. Despite him being such a mess, he was a beautiful cat, with massive eyes and a very cute high pitched meow. He was incredibly affectionate and wanted to be with someone all the time.

After he'd been all cleaned up at the sanctuary

Even though it was upsetting and scary caring for him due to his condition, it was also lovely and we became very quickly attached to him as he was so loving and sweet. We just couldn't understand how someone could treat any cat like this, let alone one so lovely. There wasn't a nasty bone in his body and he was so calm and placid and seemed to want nothing more than to be loved.

We got the results from the vets and the good news was that he was flu free so was ok to go to the shelter.

The sanctuary finally had a place for him, which was great news, so we took him in, although it was sad to say goodbye, we knew he would be well looked after.

We missed him a lot and a couple of times went to visit, he didn't seem quite himself though, but everyone had fallen in love with him just like us, due to his gentle sweet nature. He also had the incredibly cute habit of putting a paw up to ask for food or pawing you. He also did this if he wanted a cuddle which was often.

They had groomed him and removed his mats, so he was looking a bit bald and very skinny but at the same time a lot better. He had been cleaned up and treated for worms and flea's etc and was being slowly fed up, although he was occasionally having tummy troubles.

The bad news came though, when the other tests results came back that the vets had done ....his Liver function tests, which showed him to have Liver Failure. This meant that he was not going to have very long left. We couldn't believe it.

Due to this and the fact we had been missing him a lot, my sister made the decision that for his final time, however long he may have, we would take him and look after him ourselves.

So we went out and brought him a lovely cat bed, some grooming brushes and some bits and pieces including a separate litter tray so as not to upset Bella, my other cat, and my sister paid the adoption fee's and we brought him home :)

Sensible cat, keeping warm in the winter

 Theo had safe warm loving home for his last few months. He enjoyed sleeping in my sisters laundry basket and sadly would get very upset and howl if he was left on his own. I think this may have been due to how unwell and old he was.

I had to move away to Leeds for work a couple of months later and sadly couldn't take him with me as I was moving into a flat with no garden and my other cat Bella gets hysterical around other cat's, even one as loving as Theo. I was very upset to leave him but did come back to see him a few times.
One of those times when I arrived he climbed up onto my knee and put a paw on each of my shoulders and nuzzled his head into me, like a real human hug. He also used to dig like a dog he was such a character.

There were a two horrible scares we had with Theo before it was his time to go, where he would have fits and try and go under a bed to I assume die alone as cat's often do. It was very upsetting.
Devastatingly my sister called me 23rd of December 2010, the day before I was due to travel back for Christmas. Theo had had another episode and was very ill. His kidneys were failing and the vet decided he was suffering too much to be alive. I desperately wanted to hold him, comfort him, to say goodbye, but the vet would not wait one more day and Theo was put to sleep. It was heartbreaking. It was a sad Christmas not having him with us but instead having to bury him.

 During his time with us we had an beautiful adoring pet. We managed to make the life he had left so much better. We couldn't have done this without the help of the animal sanctuary and without the financial help from my sister.
Why anyone would choose treat an animal like this, especially Theo I really don't know. He truly was the sweetest creature I have ever come across. R.I.P Theo. 

                                                    

*If you live anywhere near Wilmslow and are thinking of getting a Pet, please consider adopting from the shelter mentioned above. Their name is linked to their site. Or if you would like to make a donation feel free. They are a fantastic organisation and depend on donations. They provide wonderful care for the animals there and helped us so much with Theo.

Meet Bella - how she adopted me

Let me introduce you to my cat Bella. She turned 7 at some point this year. That now makes her a senior cat according to cat food. I can't believe time has gone that fast. Sadly she's not a fan of children (she'd never scratch them or anyone, but as soon as she catches sight of children she bolts) so all my very loving but fairly loud and bouncy 3 year old ever see's of her is the blur of her tail as she scarpers!

Here is an edited version of a post dedicated to her from my previous blog:

Bella strolled on into my life right through a kitchen window in Summer 2007 and has been a part of it ever since.

Bella is my seven year old female tabby cross who thinks of me as her mummy cat and means the world to me.

Kittens at Wilmslow animal shelter

I'd always wanted a cat, specifically a kitten. My dream was to have a ginger tabby which I would call Muffin. I don't know why that name, but that's what I came up with as a child. My brother wanted a silver tabby called smokey and my mum a tortoiseshell cat. That was our 'dream', but as we didn't have the money or the space we never got them.

I moved into my third and final home in Liverpool, where I studied for Universirty, at the end of August in 2007. 

We had to move in by a certain point, and also as I had a lot of exam revision to do which I found hard to do at home, I moved back to Liverpool a couple weeks before uni restarted. 

Being in a new house all on my own was pretty lonely and I had been suffering from depression and finding life difficult ever since I became long term ill at 19. 
 I'd only been there about a day when I heard a mewing in the back yard. I opened the back door to find a small, young cat demanding something, I didn't know what. I was very patient and quiet and she came to me. She was very friendly and seemed to love attention once she knew I was not something to be scared of.
 She wandered off after a bit and I got on with things. Later on she came back, so I figured she was a local cat, but then the next day she returned mewing outside the kitchen window really wanting to get in.
I gave her a tiny bit of milk as she seemed hungry, but only a little as I was sure dairy milk was not actually very good for cats.

Besides the distraction of the young cat, once I'd organized my stuff, I had revision to get on with, but at one point feeling a bit down and tired I had fallen half asleep on my notes. Half awake I was suddenly aware of footsteps coming up the stairs, which scared me. My brain didn't have time to rationalize that they weren't loud enough to be human. I lifted my head up to find this cat standing over me on my bed and wanting attention. 

The intruder ....

Making herself at home already

It was seeming like she didn't have a home, but I wasn't sure and just thought it was nice to have a friendly neighborhood cat who came to visit. However when inspecting the back yard a couple days later I found a cat food bowl and water bowl. It was starting to make more sense why she seemed to think this was her home, it looked like she had been left behind by the previous occupants. 

When my friend moved in we decided we better start feeding the cat and go about finding if she did belong to someone in the area. It was looking unlikely though due to my findings and the fact that even before feeding her she would meow constantly outside the window to be let in. I took to leaving it open for it, possibly quite unwise living in that area of Liverpool (especially considering events to come).

After taking her to the vets we found out she was a girl as some friends had suggested after meeting her. She was in perfect health and only a couple of months old.....so still a kitten. She had no chip, but she had been neutered. 
We took to asking neighbors and looking out for lost cat posters, but no one seemed to be missing her, so finally we decided to look after her.

We had to come up with a name we all liked. My friends partner and I both thought of Bellatrix for some reason, but even though it sounded good, this kitten was anything but evil!
The three of us decided to shorten it to Bella. 

I had some funny moments with her at that house such as opening my desk drawer to get some paper only to find her curled up asleep in it. 
Trying to revise but her wanting attention so she would come and sit right on top my text books or notepad so she could be stroked. 
She also loved to attack my pens.  

However we did start to get difficulties.....she didn't like being shut out of rooms so would make a lot of noise or try and scratch to get it. This was at nighttime as she wanted to be in my bedroom. Often I would leave my door open for her, but then I didn't have my privacy.
She also made a couple of scratch marks in the house, which was a huge worry as we weren't actually allowed pets and had a big deposit on the place. When someone from the estate agents did need to come round to see the house I had to go to the lengths of hiding her at a friends house for a couple of hours!

To try and stop her coming upstairs at night and waking us and trying to get in my room (which somehow she would manage even if the door was shut) we kept her in the bathroom a couple of nights. She hated this however and one morning we came down to find she had ripped some of the floor up. 

Jen was horrified and decided she had to go. I could understand because it was going to be very hard to fix and hide and there was the potential she would do more damage. We would be in a whole heap of trouble if they found out we had a cat and definately couldn't afford to lose the huge deposit. At the same time though I was hurt, angry and heartbroken. We'd had her for several months now and she was very close to me.
When the R.S.P.C.A worker came to pick her up Bella got upset straight away. I'm sure she could tell something was happening and when she got near her she was very on edge as she was at the time very frightened of other cats and the worker smelt of them.

I was so so upset losing her and thinking I would never see her again. I had really bonded with her Bella and she had helped as a distraction with the difficulties I had living my life due to my illness. 

Luckily my sister came to my rescue when she saw how much I was missing her and decided in the meantime she would get Bella back and she could live at her house, until I was in my next place. I am so grateful to her for this, as otherwise Bella would not be in my life now. 
She also helped Bella with some health problems, as she occasionally had been getting an upset tummy and it turns out she has cat IBS, so now has special food to help her with this.




I lived with my sister for a couple of years after university due to my health condition but then moved to Leeds taking Bella with me. She's still with me now 4 years and a child later and back in Stockport. She's an irreplaceable part of my little family.