Rescuing Roland

I've been going to take care of Jenny for a couple of years, and more so since she lost her sister last year. The changes in her are remarkable, both through finally having the house to herself, and the Reiki help I've been giving to her. She's much more friendly, confident and vocal – and now very good at bossing us all around. I wrote about Jenny's story in August – have a look at "Introducing Mrs Dolittle".

But this story isn't about her. In recent months, while I've been visiting her, every now and again a rather sad looking cat comes to the door. He's rather skinny, not very clean, has scratches all over his face, and has something wrong with his eyes. Jenny's mum has also noticed him from time to time, so has been leaving a food bowl out in the front garden. If either of us see him we run inside to get some food, and he wolfs it down! Clearly doesn't get to eat that regularly. Alison didn't know if he had a home and family, but our guess was that he didn't. Or, if he did, he wasn't well looked after. Given that we don't see him a lot, he probably has a fairly wide territory that he roams, and goes where he knows where he might get some food from time to time.

There was one time he came out from under a car just as I was arriving, and followed me up the garden path. I fed him, but was so tempted to scoop him up, and take him to Animals in Distress. Even if he did have a home, he was clearly in need of some urgent medical attention and a few good meals!! Alison and I often talked about what we should do; but we were reluctant as we really didn't know anything about him.

The day came though, when we decided that we should do something. Alison had asked around her neighbours, and nobody seemed to know where he lived, so it was a fair bet that he didn't have a home. So, one day when I was doing a long visit with Jenny, I arranged for Animals in Distress to bring the cat trap to see if we could tempt him in. I brought some tuna to encourage things even more – although he would have eaten anything. As visits were few and far between, we really didn't know how long it would take. But within about half an hour I heard the door spring closed and rushed out to see him inside!! He wasn't happy, yowling and crying, and I could understand that. But I felt certain that once he'd had some medical care and we got him to Animals in Distress he'd be much happier. Just image – living outside in the cold and wet (by now November), always looking over your shoulder to be certain there were no other cats around, only eating from time to time, nowhere soft, warm and safe to sleep.

I called Brian from Animals in Distress again, and we arranged to meet half way where I'd hand him over – and he had him booked in at the vet for a check up. I called Brian later to see how he was, and he said the vet had been surprised that his physical condition wasn't as bad as I'd suggested it would be. In fact, the vet said he was a fairly strong, healthy cat, albeit rather old. Well, both Alison and her neighbour had been feeding him for a while, so perhaps this had helped his condition a little. I called Alison to let her know of our success later on, then went to visit him the next day at Animals in Distress. He was fairly quiet and shy, sitting up on his shelf, but accepted some head scratches from me, and a little food. Had to admit he did look better than I'd remembered him last (was hard to tell how he looked while in the cat trap as I couldn't see him properly). We decided to call him Roland.

All this made sense when Alison called that evening and said she'd had the shock of her life – she'd just got home from work, and who should follow her up the garden path? So, even if we'd only ever seen one black and white cat, there were actually two!! The one we'd called Roland was in better health, but as with our friend, had more white than black on him, and the black bits were peppered with grey hairs. At first we were both so worried that we'd taken a cat that had a perfectly nice home of his own, and perhaps his family were now getting worried about him. But then, he was in the best place he could be, warm and safe with lots of lovely food to eat. So, Alison and I created some posters and flyers and distributed them all around the area, to see if anyone came forward.

I'd sensed that Roland was also a stray, but just one that wasn't ill, and was perhaps better at finding food. I had a go at tuning into him, to see if I could have a conversation, and see how he felt. Despite my conviction that he was a stray, I worried that I'd pick up on feelings of upset and missing his family. But all I got were happy feelings. As far as he was concerned he'd really fallen on his feet, had his own little place to sleep in, and plenty of food to eat. People would come and see him and talk to him all through the day. He was loving it!! That was reinforced when I went back to Animals in Distress a couple of days later. The staff said that he was now coming to the front of his cage to greet people, and he seemed to be really happy. He was a gentle soul, but friendly all the same.

So, we got the wrong cat, but maybe we got the cat we were supposed to???

Alison has still seen the original cat (we really should give him a name) from time to time, but he's still rather elusive and shy around people. I'm hoping that we can rescue him one day, but I'm not so sure we will. Alison's reluctant to use the cat trap again as it really needed to go in the back yard, rather than the front garden – but that was starting to upset Jenny. The back yard is her territory, and although she's doing really well these days, we don't want to set her back again.

Meantime Alison's continued to talk to neighbours, and has now learnt a little more. It seems that there were two white and black cats living with a family who moved away and left them behind, and have been straying ever since. So, hopefully we can find a nice new home for Roland one day soon, and eventually rescue his brother........ I'll keep you updated.

By the way, the cat in the picture isn't Roland, but looks a lot like him. I'll try to take one of him and post it for you to see.