Speckle and his first week
31 December 2012
It’s Christmas Eve and I go to collect Speckles from his current foster home. He is ready to go. He’d been to the vets in the morning for some injections before I arrived so he was already in his carrier.
This is the first time I’d fostered a cat before. I’ve always had cats, two of which came from Cat’s Protection. I had recently lost one through old age that I had adopted when I puchased a house six years ago.
I’ve spent the last year updating Stamford & District Cat’s Protection website and set up their Facebook page. Little Speckles has been with us for over six months and no-one had been able to get a good photo of him for the website, so I think he had been overlooked slightly.
On the way home I popped him on the front seat of the car and he soon began kneading his blanket and settled down in a curled up ball. On the 40 minute journey home he only looked up twice and then went back to sleep!
Once home I let him out of his carrier and he had the run of the kitchen and hallway. He stuck close to my legs, meowing away. I gave him some food. Feeding time was a frenzy, it certainly didn’t stay on the plate very long!
After lunch he spent the afternoon snoozing on my knee, purring away. He seemed contented and happy. He was rolling about, kneading and relaxed in my company. He also liked laying on the floor next to the lounge door so that if I wanted to go anywhere I would have to step over him and he’d know I was on the move….and follow me!
That night I had given him a box with his bedding in it next to the radiator in the hallway. I didn’t hear a peep from him all night.
Christmas Day morning he ventured upstairs and made himself at home on my pink fluffy dressing gown that I had left on the bed!
Today would be interesting to see how he reacted to other people. My mum, brother and his girlfriend were coming to lunch, all of which are cat lovers and looking forward to meeting Speckles.
Speckles coward down when my brother arrived, he is 6’3” and Speckles was obviously apprehensive about him. He shot upstairs and backed himself in between my bed and the bedside cabinet, within seconds I coaxed him out he was rubbing round my hand and following me back down the stairs. Within 5-10 minutes he had sniffed and rubbed around everyone and seemed a lot happier and was interacting with everyone.
Christmas Day night he followed me up the stairs to bed and settled at the bottom of the bed and remained there until the morning. There is something comforting about a lightly snoring cat.
I had noticed that he had not been playing. Mum and I both brought him gifts to play with for Christmas but he wasn’t interested. So I thought I would start to teach him to play and reward him with food. First I took a cardboard tube from the inside of a roll of wrapping paper and cut a section about 20cm long. I covered both ends and then made a series of holes in it where I could put his crunchies. Then he could roll it on the floor and the crunchies would fall out! It would hopefully teach him two things – firstly playing and also to slow his eating habits down a bit.
As I placed it on the floor he wasn’t sure what to do with it and just sniffed it, he knew that the crunchies were in there! As I helped to roll it along the floor the crunchies fell out and then he got the idea and started pushing it along with his head or his paw. If it got stuck against the sofa he would move it with his paw and start rolling it again until they were all gone!
As he seemed to be a quick learner, I thought I’d try and teach him to ‘sit’. Within minutes he was sat in front of me. I would say ‘sit’, he’d sit and then I’d throw a crunchie and say ’good boy Speckles’ as he ate it, he would then come back to me, I’d say ‘sit’ again and he would. And so it goes on whilst he has several crunchies! He really is a fast learner, have a look at this Youtube video of him! He more often than not jumps up at my legs whilst I am trying to get his food so I just say ‘down Speckles’ and he gets down! Who said you can’t train a cat!
I’ve been doing the above with him each day and he is even been chasing the teaser wand that initially he was scared of. So we are making great progress and we are having fun at the same time!
Considering he has spent the last six months in a pen he is an exceptionally good boy as a house cat. He has not scratched any furniture, does not jump on the worktops, he is a clean cat and always uses his cat litter box. He hasn't even bothered with the baubles on the Christmas Tree! He is loving, friendly, funny and affectionate as well as extremely cute. I am sure he will make a devoted cat to any owner.
He constantly follows me if I am going into the kitchen as he is always looking for food, even though he may have only just been fed! And I have to be careful not to trip over him as he walks so close to me. Sometimes I hold my arm out in front of me so he looks up at my hand and then he is two steps in ahead of me!
As his profile states on the website he is FIV positive, however he is not on any medication and it does not make any negative difference to his behaviour at all. You can learn more about FIV on the Feline Advise Bureau website, just click here.
Ideally due to his condition he needs to be in a home on his own or with another cat that has FIV and needs to either be kept as an indoor cat and/or have access to an outside pen.
If you would like to know more about adopting Speckles and/or his condition then please do not hesitate to contact us on 01780 571 343.
To check out Speckle’s profile just click here.