Happy Tales - Bitsy

Katie volunteers at the Cat Sanctuary - she has adopted BITSY, featured here, and SPARKLE (more to come).
Most of the Sanctuary cats are considered unadoptable, and we are very wary of letting a seemingly tame semi-feral leave familiar territory (see Esme's story). But volunteers can build strong bonds with cats, and sometimes it produces a happy ending...

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Bitsy

Her first day in her new home

I'm sure a few people may remember Bitsy from last year. Carol had trapped her out at a cement factory and she ended up in a med cage in the Connor in July 2013.  Originally she was brought in with another cat who went to Number Five Road shelter and was adopted.  Bitsy was thought to be feral. After a couple months and lots of love from the staff and volunteers at the Sanctuary she proved to be tame but quite timid.
In September of last year we lost our sweet 17 year old O’Malley and by late October while volunteering in the single wide on my Monday night shift I let Leslie know that we felt ready to bring a new cat into our family. She introduced me to Bits.

The very first time we met

A little thing, with a round body and short little legs, my boyfriend came to meet her and we brought her home just a week or so later.
They recommend taking at least a full two weeks to fully introduce a new cat into a home with other cats and I would definitely recommend that after our failure to do so.  We kept her in her own room for the first six days, trying to split our time between Bitsy and our two other cats, 9 year old Stinky and 17 year old Maggie.  We had the best intentions but eventually Stinky’s curiosity led to an early introduction.

Please forgive the blurry phone picture, she never does this when the good camera is out and it’s too cute not to share

Bitsy and Stinky got along great from the start but it’s been more challenging for Maggie.  It took a few months but they really seemed to learn to co-exist once Bitsy stopped trying to knock Maggie off of her spots on the bed and couch.

"I tolerate you"

Bitsy is doing great.  She has been such a wonderful addition to our family.  We figured out early on that she isn’t really able to jump; she would slowly climb all the way up onto the bed at night and do an odd little half climb/half jump-fall to get back down.  A little search on the internet showed that she was likely an English Shorthair and they are known for not jumping due to their short legs and round bodies (learn something new every day) so we bought her some cat stairs (bottom right of the above photo) and she just loves to hang out on the bed now.
She is talkative, and very playful.  She keeps about 5 toys around her at all times.  We call them her entourage.

Bitsy and her entourage, the white mouse is her favorite toy in the world sometimes she brings it onto the bed

She also loves her wet food.  She knows exactly what time dinner is and she is always sure to remind us.

 

It took a couple months for her to feel comfortable with us but once she trusted us a bit we were delighted to find out she absolutely loves tummy rubs.  My boyfriend also found a tickle spot on her back; she will kiss your nose or forehead if you get the back scratches just right

 

We are just smitten with her. 

 

Blog intro by Brigid Coult

Blog and pictures by Katie Scragg