It’s been a rollercoaster ride

Mummy and daddy have been trying to help Precious settle in and they decided to do it through play. Mummy was trying to explain to me how Lil P wasn’t like us three girls who had somehow taught ourselves to play with toys and feathers and each other. Precious was actually scared of toys and if one touched her she would flinch rather than play and pounce and chase. I think that’s quite sad really but she was on the streets the longest out of all of us so might explain why. I know from my own experience that life on the streets isn’t fun and playful, it’s hard and scary, specially you’re poorly and alone with no one to help you. You only care about surviving, finding the next morsel of food to eat, not frivolous things such as fun.

Mummy and daddy tried each of our toys, one by one to see if anything at all provoked even the smallest reaction, just a twitch of an ear or the flex of a paw but nothing, not a glimmer. Then one day mummy was playing with Angelin with her favourite crinkle stick and just brushed it on the sofa next to Precious and there it was, the smallest head movement rolling the crinkle stick. It would have been easy to miss but mummy is a very clever lady, not much gets past her and she just very casually and without saying a word or reacting at all moved the crinkle stick back again, there it was again, Lil P’s head moved again. Back went mummy with the toy and there was a paw movement – Precious was finally playing. Look daddy, mummy whispered Precious is playing. Fantastic said daddy, keep it going. Well since then mummy played with Precious all the time, each time building her confidence a bit more, little by little. We got to play too and one day mummy was playing with the crinkle stick with Angelin again, Angelin was running all over the floor and as mummy watched Precious was watching Angelin play, watching the stick swish back and forth across the floor, then Precious moved right to the edge of the sofa, head hanging over the edge and all of a sudden she couldn’t contain herself any more and almost without realising what she was doing she launched! Then as if that was just the most normal thing to do she landed on the toy and then realising what she’d done she ran and hid behind the chair! That wasn’t the end of it though, she still wanted to play but just little bursts to catch he toy and then back to the safety of the chair. She did this for a little bit and then had to have a little rest as she was tired out. Not being used to playing it’s quite a tiring game so little bursts are what mummy was going for with a rest in between to recharge.

Over the next few days the play got longer and the rests got shorter, there was gradually more play out from the chair and bit by bit and without Precious even realising what mummy was doing she was playing all over the living room floor. When mummy was out at work daddy took over as Precious play buddy. Then we started to get curious, there was the patter of different paw steps, I know each of my sisfurs way of walking and running, Angelin is a slow and steady step, usually quiet and considered, even when she runs it’s just a quicker walk, she rarely bursts into a run. Then there’s Millie, she has a different noise, she’s far from quiet and you can hear her thud, thud, thud as she runs around nearly always at super speed. This was different though, Precious is a very quiet girl, we hardly even notice she’s around most of the time but I could hear the happiness in her movements, she had a spring in her step, running, chasing and even a little leap or two and the paw steps always followed the little noise that they toy made as it scampered across the floor.

Having Precious around still makes us all nervous but whilst Millie and Angelin watch and listen to her playing, I get anxious so I get my wheel going and have a good walk or run to get all the stress out. Mummy says the wheel is the best thing that we ever got for me as it keeps me from getting too stressed about things. Mummy also says that Lil P always seems to like watching me when I’m running, maybe one day she’ll have a go on the wheel too.

Then just as everything was going well, Lil P had to go for a check up on her ear and she came back smelling of the v-e-t and then if that wasn’t bad enough later in the week she had to go back again, mummy noticed her nose was bunged up and the usual sneezing fit didn’t do the job, plus she had scratched her head during the night so back she went. Turns out she had an infected nose and also itchy eyes which needed medicine every day, twice a day, mummy said poor Lil P had also had two jabs in her neck to help fight the infection and to stop the itch. So mummy duly started with the eye drops, well we heard the shouts at the other end of the house, Precious is a small cat, generally fairly silent except for the odd little weird meow here and there when asking for breakfast or playtime but how this noise came out of her I’ve no idea. You would have thought mummy was doing something terrible. It became a daily fight to get any medicine into her eyes at all, mummy said she was lucky to get them in once a day let alone twice. Anyway she persevered but apparently Precious nose was still bunged up and she just wasn’t right, making weird head movements when eating and pawing at her face so back to the v-e-t she went one evening, eventually after mummy and daddy had captured her – mummy described her as being like a slippery bar of soap with legs on! Off she went and then when they came back mummy had a heavy voice, “she needs to go in tomorrow to have her nose flushed” she told daddy, “they also want to x-ray her in case her cancer has come back and is causing a blockage and causing a problem.” “Well,” said daddy, “that’s what we’ve go to do then, get it sorted and hope it’s just food or something that she’s been shoving up there.” So again, the next morning we were all locked out of the living room whilst mummy wrestled with the soap and eventually caught her and off they went, this time Precious was gone all day and we had daddy all to ourselves.

There was good news though, when the phone rang daddy’s voice sounded happy, he told us there was no sign of any growths or nasties in Precious nose and that she had been just bunged up, she came home with mummy a few hours later but she was not a happy girl. She hid. She was scared. She didn’t come out of the spare room for two days. This made mummy upset and whilst I had my evening walkies I could tell mummy wasn’t her usual happy self, she was quiet and thoughtful. I meowed at mummy to find out what was wrong. She said that she felt heartbroken that Lil P was so scared in the very place she should feel safe and secure. All the good work so far with making her feel loved had taken a huge step backwards, she then went on to explain to me that the three of us had plenty of time to get to know mummy and daddy and learn that we loved each of them, plenty of time to build our trust and to know that whatever happened they were there for us. I know that mummy I meowed, I trust you and when I’m poorly I know you will look after me and do what’s best. Mummy went on, “Well Jen, we should be there to provide comfort to you when your sick or scared, to be able to reassure you that you’re safe and loved, not be the ones that you are scared of, that’s not how it’s supposed to work.” I tried to reassure mummy and purred to her, nuzzling her hand with my head, telling her that we knew that and we trust them implicitly, I gave her hand a little kiss. “Thanks Jen, I know you three are good but poor Precious doesn’t know that yet, she hasn’t had the chance to learn about us yet, every time we make a bit of progress and she just starts to trust us just a little bit something happens and we’re back to the beginning again and to top it all off she doesn’t even have you girls as friends yet so she really must feel really alone which is heartbreaking for us. It’s something that we’ve got to put right, no matter how long it takes, she’s been through so much already and really deserves a break and some good luck.”

Mummy also says that as well as play helping us to bond eating together helps too, after all you can’t eat and fight at the same time and eating together is a social thing and something that furramilies do. So mummy has been working on that with Angelin and Precious, they both live food so when the bowls go down it’s heads in and nothing else really matters, gradually mummy has been working the bowls closer and closer so they’re almost next to each other at the food station. We don’t do it all the time but it’s getting a bit more frequent and each time mummy smiles a little more.

I really wish Lil P knew how kind mummy and daddy are, that she knew that they are just trying to help her and wouldn’t do anything to hurt her and that purromise that they made to her when she first arrived is true, we are loved, we are safe and we are home.

I thought about what mummy had said to me about Lil P having no furriends and feeling lonely and I thought about how that might feel and I made a little secret promise to myself and mummy, that I would try just a little bit harder to make Precious feel welcome, after all when I first arrived my brofur and sisfur made me feel welcomed into the furramily. At the very least I’ll try not to be too grumpy towards her from now on after all you don’t join a furramily to be lonely, loneliness is something that should be left on the streets.