Introducing Eleanor

[Dawn F]

oh she is a sweetheart!!  I'm being very slow with my intros for newbie willow - am putting it off 

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

What do they say about a picture painting a thousand words........ 

[sheilarose]

Oh my 

[Lyn (Slugsta)]

Butter wouldn't melt... 

[Frances]

I'd been thinking for some time about getting a third cat. James is very human-orientated so when Christopher wants to communicate in cat, particularly grooming, James gets the hump.  If Christopher insists it usually ends up as a bit of a bish-bosh.  I thought a third, cat-speaking cat might improve things.

Ellie is a bit younger than what I'd been looking for but when I saw her in the paper it was definitely .  She does have cuddlebum tendencies but she's young, in a strange place and had two pretty major ops in three months.  Christopher is definitely curious about her; James is doing the feline equivalent of sticking his fingers in his ears and going la la la.

Ellie and Christopher already have something in common - they are both very food orientated!  She managed to find and "kill" half a packet of Dreamies yesterday ; fortunately no ill-effects in her tray today.

[Tiggy's Mum]

What an absolute beauty  The poor little thing must have been in agony, thank God the lady noticed her and took her to the vets. Were you on the lookout for a new friend for the boys anyway or did she just steal your heart? 

[Jiji]

So pleased Eleanor  has found a wonderful home with you after all she has been through 

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Oh Frances - she's gorgeous, bless her paws.     What a dire first year she's had from the sounds of things, but so very glad she's ended up with you now. 

Sounds like James and Christopher are actually being very good boys about it all. 

We gave our cage away - an action I do regret, especially seeing how pricey they've become in the intervening years.

Eleanor's a wonderfully Queenly kind of name, neutered or not.  Very regal.     Her fur will grow back, and then she'll show the boys a thing or two, I bet.   

[Lyn (Slugsta)]

What a sweetie! I have a soft spot for tripods after my darling Chivers lost a leg when he was 2 yo - and he lasted for another 16+years after that. I hope Eleanor has such a long and happy life with you 

[sheilarose]

I'm really pleased with my cage. Frances. I've just taken it down as Kuki's spay was so neat she doesn't need to be separated any more, and because Kato has now been re-homed she hasn't got the rough and tumble going on. Hope Ellie's recovery continues apace. 

[Frances]

Thanks sheilarose (now you know why I was asking about cages ) and Liz.  I have heard of Comfy Collars but she was due to have her spay check last Wednesday so thought she'd be okay for 5 days. I hadn't reckoned on the Alcatraz sound effects  or her appointment being postponed to Friday.  I think I'll get one in case any of them ever need it (umbrella principle - if you've got one you won't need it).

[Liz]

She is beautiful having a couple of tripods here and she will soon have those boys whipped in to shape

Comfy collar here as well so much better than the head trumpet and worth the investment unless you have an NFC who needs a dog one

[sheilarose]

What an incredibly lucky girl she is, well done Frances for taking her on, I'm sure she will have a wonderful life with you and the boys now.
 
Have you heard of Comfy Collars? I prefer them generally to the cone type as they don't freak the animal out and do allow them to feed, but wonder if it would restrict her movement quite enough to stop her picking out her stitches.

She's utterly gorgeous, I can't believe her owners haven't come forward! 

[Frances]

I have found a new furry girl to join the boys – meet Eleanor (Ellie).  Ellie is a tripod – she had been caught in a trap, taken to my vets and had an article in the local paper to try to find her owner – see link http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2013/07/29/cat-cheats-death-after-being-snared-in-trap/.  Her previous owner never came forward (hmmm) so I went to visit her a couple of times.  I had to wait for her spay to be done but she came home with me on Friday 13 September, complete with buster collar (she’s a stitch nibbler and had previously managed to unpick her amputation stitches). 

Compared to the boys she is so tiny (although I understand a lot bigger than she was when first found).  Her missing leg doesn’t bother or limit her, her size means she’ll be able to get into spaces the boys can’t (I expect to find out what these are in time!) and she has bundles of energy.  The vets reckon she’s about 12-15 months old and semi-long haired – hard to tell when she’s got so many baldy bits from her ops and general fur clipping around her back legs and tail to remove maggots (yuk).  She went back to the vets last Friday for her spay check – yay, collar off and weight gain since her spay – plus her first vaccinations and will be back in three weeks for second vaccs and another weight check.

So far the boys aren’t that impressed with the alien in the cage – particularly when Ellie had the collar on as she’d bang about in her cage like a prisoner rattling a tin cup along the bars.  It’s still (very) early days on the integration front – they have seen each other and scent swapping is in progress.  James, I think, is mortified at the prospect of sharing lap time with another cat and is pretending she’s not there whereas Christopher is intrigued, although Ellie did come out with some fairly fruity hissing when she spotted him.

As here are some to be getting on with . . .