Once again my friend who inspires me to poetry has done it again with tales of her Easter Break...
It is an unwise man
Who niggles his wife
In the confines of a caravan
When she’s armed with a knife
This sort of behaviour
Is nothing but foolery
And can lead to testicles
Being made into jewellery
A wife is precious
And should be given her due
To save your meat and two veg
Being made into stew
When a wife in a caravan
Is without her HRT patch
Be thankful to come away
With only a scratch.
To the left is Kip. Kip and his siblings were rescued and brought into care when they were just a few weeks old. Kip hasn't perfectly adjusted, hence he has come to us for some 'rehab'- he has problems with his manners! He is litter trained - in fact he is very clean. He has a good appetite. He would play all day given the choice so what is the problem? Well when he sees your hand he works on the principle of 'if it moves smack it' and sadly he smacks with his claws out and you cannot not get near him.
But the behaviour is stranger still. At night he sleeps in a pen, equipped with ensuite and food like all plush rehab facilities, and he loves it. Like a well trained puppy when I go in on an evening after his day in the unit we just have to say 'bed' and in he gets. On a morning when it is time for him to come out he bounds forward and we pick him up and have a huge cuddle. He flings himself back, he purrs, he rubs, we put him onto the floor and then we are back to smacking when you approach him. As a result hands and arms have a number of war wounds.
Today I had a breakthrough. As he chilled on the unit sofa this afternoon he smacked me, but with no claws, and then let me stroke his head and tickle his chin for a whole minute. We can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Kip is in no way unusual and not the worse case by far. Part of our work takes us into feral colonies when we trap and neuter. Feral cats are wild animals and however cutesy they look you are soon reminded they are not. Sometimes we have sent some real buggers to the vets for neutering and as the vets emerge with torn hands I feel a little guilty but it seems it could be a lot worse.
That in the croc's mouth is the arm of vet Chang Po-yu.
The arm was retrieved and sewn back on.
I'll stick with cats...even tempremental Kip!
cat, cats, kitten, kittens, vet, animal+welfare, cat+welfare, crocodile, cat behaviour
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