Treacle

After Dorrie’s death, I was cat-less for around two weeks before I couldn’t stand the silence in the house any longer. I took myself down to the Cat Shelter to find a suitable cat. They don’t reserve cats that won’t be ready till after their vaccinations, which is why I spent three hours on Easter Sunday waiting outside the Shelter to be first in the queue for a little 1 year old brindle tortie I’d fallen in love with the week before, Treacle. She’d been really loving when I first met her, so I adopted her and took her home, telling myself that I shouldn’t expect her to be another Dorrie. Indeed, she wasn’t. For the first week, she meowed almost non-stop. The only times she stopped were when she was eating, and when she was walking over my lap, treadling her paws (and claws!) into my thighs to get comfortable. When I shut her downstairs overnight, she cried for hours, stopped for a while in the middle of the night, then started crying again around 4am. When I let her upstairs to sleep on my bed instead, she curled up into a ball and fell asleep. Success! But no - she woke me up at 3.30am for three nights running, without fail, by walking over my head. I shut her downstairs again and hoped she would lose her voice, with all the meowing.

I read up on lone cats. The general consensus on the internet seemed to be ‘get another cat’. I really didn’t want to be a two-cat household (more animals than humans is not a goer for me), but at the same time it seemed unfair to take her back to the Shelter. So, the next Saturday, I went down to the Shelter for advice. They suggested that I could either get a second cat, or wait a little while longer to see if she settled in. The cats they had that they thought would be suitable weren’t ready anyway, so I at least had a grace period. I left the Shelter and went down to the pet shop to get some more toys for Treacle and, back at home, ordered a cat tree for her. Amazingly, it seemed to work somewhat. She played with the toys, explored the cat tree disdainfully at first, and didn’t cry quite so much. Several more nights of shutting her downstairs seemed to reinforce the idea that crying would not get her middle-of-the-night sympathy. I told the Shelter that she seemed to be settling down, and relaxed a bit.

She still spends an inordinate amount of time sleeping next to me or treadling my thighs if I’m on the sofa. Occasionally she’ll hare around the living room like a mad thing, or try to claw up the rug. Whilst I’m a bit too nervous to let her go outside after what happened to Dorrie, she does look out the window and cry now and then. I got her a leash and harness and might try going out into the back garden with her. She escaped last night when I opened the living room door and I spent 10 worried minutes in the rain trying to coax her out from under the neighbours’ cars. I introduced her to the spare bedroom for the first time today, and she meowed for 20 minutes straight, even when I shooed her out and back downstairs. Won’t be trying that one again.

It has to be said that Treacle is an amazingly loving cat. She loves attention and never turns down some fuss, unlike Dorrie, who would only tolerate so much stroking before nipping. Her favourite sleeping spot is next to me (cute, but not always a good thing). She’s relaxed around my friends, and will happily go to them for fuss. She thinks she’s a guard dog, and will growl if someone knocks on the door. She uses the litter tray, and has done from day one, and doesn’t claw the litter liner to pieces. She’s definitely got a very different personality to Dorrie, which is understandable. It’s taking me time to adjust to her, and probably her to me, but I like to think we’re making progress. Here’s hoping we find happy common ground. buy cialisbuy cialisbuy levitrabuy levitrabuy propeciabuy propeciabuy somabuy somabuy levitrabuy cialisbuy propeciabuy levitrabuy somabuy cialisbuy propeciabuy levitrabuy somabuy cialisbuy levitrabuy propeciabuy soma