Caturday: trapped!

Are you getting in the mood for Christmas? No? I can change all that if you attend my Christmas in June workshop on June 28. But I do need you to register today as I have to place the order tomorrow. Places have nearly all gone so hurry! You can register by clicking here. At the class you’ll make eight cards to give you a head start on your Christmas projects – and you’ll have a fun afternoon with a friendly group of people. 

And now, of course, it’s Caturday and, after last week’s adorable kittens, we’re going to the other extreme I’m afraid. Avid Caturday readers may remember Tutheran, the stray black cat which hangs around our garden, terrorising our cats and squirting up our hedge. Most vet trips lately have been because of a wound or abscess caused by fights with Tutheran.

We’ve been trying to catch him for months in a trap we’d borrowed from the cat shelter. This took so long partly because we kept catching the wrong cat (everyone took their turn!) and partly because of timing. We had to be around to observe the trap (didn’t want to leave the poor creature in it unnecessarily) and to get to the vet in opening hours. 

Finally, the deed was done – but he certainly wasn’t happy about it. Ok, the flash went off and made his eyes look like headlamps and seem more demonic than he really is. He did settled down after a few minutes and resign himself to his imprisonment. But not until he’d screwed up the newspaper we’d laid down in the trap to cover the mechanism which he’d previously been stepping over. 

Off we dashed to the vets for a little procedure which should hopefully calm him down. After trying and failing to find a friendly farm to take him on as a farm cat, we released him back at home. We figured it wouldn’t be fair to put him in a shelter, when he’s used to roaming free. And hopefully the op will reduce his aggression. 

Since releasing him, however, I’ve had an offer from a nice lady who lives near Crich who has offered to find him a home on a farm in a few weeks … when he’s hopefully forgotten about the evil trap and wanders into it again.