Poppy Tuxedo

We visited the CPL with no intention of adopting another cat but were introduced to 18 month old Poppy. She was in a pen with her three kittens which were about 4 weeks old.  Athough she did not object to her kittens being handled Poppy herself appeared very nervous and hid behind her bed and any attempt to reach in to her enclosure would elicit hissing and further encroachment would be met with waving paws.

On my second visit I sat in the pen and just looked away and chatted to her; after a while she came out and sat beside me and let me stroke her, she was soon purring loudly.  At this stage it was obvious she was very nosey and if anything was happening she would overcome her nervousness to investigate.

We decided she needed a home and agreed to take her on the basis that if there were problems with our 20 year old cat Sammy, she might have to be returned.  A pen was erected in our lounge with the idea of forcing her to have contact with us but on getting her home I decided just to let her out.  My wife was right, she ran under the table and hid.  An hour later curiosity got the better of her and she came out for a look round.  She rolled on her back beside us and insisted on having her tummy rubbed and licking our hands. 

Since coming to our home she has showed no signs of her previous fear or aggression, although she does flinch if a hand comes down to her head from above.  She has trained us to rub her tummy sits on the sofa next to us, eats treats from our hand and welcomes us with very loud purrs when we arrive home after leaving her alone.  She is full of energy and never stops chattering to us and her relationship with Sammy is improving day by day although, because she wants to be friends, she is sometimes a little too forward and is told by Sammy to go away - neither cat has shown aggression as such and pawing is with claws retracted.  

Poppy now has her own Twitter account https://twitter.com/PoppyTuxedo and her own blog and is settled and happy.    We would very much urge people not just to consider older cats but also not to judge them too strongly on their behavious in a closed enironment with strangers.