John BullRealised I've never shared Napoleon the feral kitty's story here, so here we go.
This is Napoleon, and this is the story of his nine-month journey from a hungry, desperate feral street cat to snuggly duvet monster. /1 🧵 #cats
This is Not My Cat (Max). He lives next door and has always regularly popped in (with his owner's permission) when his they are out and/or their house is on fire.
Literally. I opened the door to him one day and as he strolled past, I heard alarms/saw smoke and rang the fire brigade. Still half convinced Max was trying to kill their dog /2
In late July 2021 we noticed he was a bit annoyed. It soon became clear why.
Another, much smaller cat was following him around, in obvious awe. We christened her Also Not My Cat.
This was amusing. What WASN'T amusing was when we realised how ragged and hungry she looked.
Here she is trying to talk to him through their window. He's having none of it. /3
Neither my wife nor I are cat thieves. But there are two MILLION stray and feral cats in the UK, most unneutered and most in London. Walthamstow (where we live) is a hotspot for this.
Her behaviour and desperate state worried us. We spoke to
Cats Protection. They talked us through obvious signs/checks we could do to see if she was feral. If so, they'd try to help us at least get her neutered. /4
The problem: she was UTTERLY TERRIFIED of people. Whilst this suggested she was a full feral, and had probably been born wild, it also meant she ran at any approach.
But eventually, as she got even thinner and saw us giving the odd snack to Not My Cat, she clearly reached a point where she decided she needed to be brave and trust someone.
She came closer.
She asked for food. /5
I really, really can't overstate how suspicious Also Not My Cat was of people.
Again, we're not in the habit of feeding random cats (and you shouldn't be either) but she was so thin, and hungry that we put a plate down for her with a bit of tuna on it.
She came back.
By then we had some young-cat-friendly biscuit. /6
Over the next few months, we managed to persuade her to properly cross the threshold into the house (just about) to get food. This also meant we could chip scan her (Cats Protection lent us a scanner) and get posters up in the area. The lack of response confirmed she wasn't owned. /7
Eventually, the lure of dreamies was even enough to tempt her to approach and eat from our hands.
The first time Also Not My Cat had dreamies she began purring...
...and immediately jumped about 2ft in the air and ran away.
She scared herself by purring. I think it was the first time she'd ever done it.
I don't mind saying that made me cry /8
As winter approached, we became increasingly worried about her. Ferals have a life expectancy of barely two years it's tough out there.
I put a cardboard box with one of my hoodies in it next to the door and eventually, as long as we left the door open a bit and stayed right on the other side of the room, she'd sit in it. /9
Cats Protection said they'd help us trap her, but she was still too wary to let us get close, and WAY too fast to grab.
But the weather was turning fast. So we gambled on buying her a little kennel which we put in the garden with lots of straw in it for warmth.
When she started using it, we were so happy and relieved. /10
Every night she would sleep in the kennel, eating twice a day. We talked with Cats Protection about trapping her so they could shelter and hopefully rehome, but it didn't seem likely any time soon.
But then in January 2022 she started limping. We had to act.
With effort, we managed to get her to start eating food from within a trap when she came in. Eventually, we triggered it
She looked so betrayed. But it meant they could get her to a vet. We agreed to foster her in our spare room after /11
I say "with effort" because Not My Cat was not one to pass up free food.
We caught HIM about five times before we managed to catch her. Each time he looked at up at us from within the cage, afterwards, with a look that said:
"I REGRET NOTHING". 😆 /12
A big revelation from the vet trip was that 'she' was actually a 'he'! Just a very tiny, underdeveloped and malnourished one. Probably only a year old.
I won't lie: fostering Also Not My Cat after the vet trip was REALLY hard.
There was pooping until he worked out the soil tray.
There was hiding under the bed.
There was a LOT of cardboard tearing and mess. /13
And A LOT of meowing. Betrayed meowing. "Why won't you let me out?!" meowing. Escape attempts. And still so much worry about people.
We would take turns just sitting in the room and talking to him, to try and normalise our presence.
I would sit in there on the bed for a few hours each day and read history books to him, out loud. /14
He would sit on the record player across the room, watching us. And then, one day, as I was reading to him, something wonderful happened.
He just slept.
Not "wake up every hour" sleep. Proper, total, sparko for about eight hours solid.
I think it was the first proper sleep he'd ever had. /15
And from that moment on, it was like a switch had flipped in him. It was still a slow journey, but every day he became braver and braver.
Eventually he discovered strokes. And scritches. And naps. He decided he liked strokes and scritches and naps.
Particularly when he discovered how soft the fluffy grey blanket we used in the room was. /16
Cats Protection had asked us to keep him in for AT LEAST two weeks after neutering, ideally more, before releasing him as there just wasn't a permanent home available.
Once he finally mastered the litter tray, we decided to let him roam the house at least.
And that's when he jumped on the bed in our room and discovered...
...duvets. /17
You cannot understand the mix of joy and heartbreak of watching a cat who has spent his whole life without soft places to sleep discovering duvets.
He loves duvets.
He is a duvet dragon. Duvets are his GOD. /18
And then, one day, as I was lying in bed myself, he jumped up on it, cautiously approached me, and then snuggled right up into my side. /19
And so we decided that while we had no plans to have a cat, it probably wasn't fair to let him out during the cold weather still.
So it was best to keep him inside for a while, even though he still really wanted to go outside again.
Meanwhile he kept doing stuff like this.
Stupid floof. /20
But he still wanted to go out. Really badly. So eventually, we knew we had to let him go. At least he was neutered now, had his vaccines and was chipped to Cats Protection
As spring arrived, we opened the patio door. He took a quick look back, and then darted away over the fence.
We thought that was the last we'd see of him. Thinking maybe, at best, he'd hang around in his little kennel again and pop in for food.
We left the patio door open though. Because by that point both my wife and I had admitted we'd quite like it if he came back.
But we'd decided it had to be up to him.
That done, I went upstairs for a nap.
And then, about two hours later, I was woken by the feeling of something trying to snuggle up between my arm and my side... /22
And so at that point I basically had to accept I was now a Cat Dad.
We spoke to Cats Protection again. And did the adoption process/paperwork.
And, at my wife's suggestion, he finally got a name.
Napoleon.
And he has been a permanent, very snuggly, and occasionally troublesome member of our household ever since.
Which is why my Mastodon output involves a lot of cat photos as much as writing/history. Sorry about that. 😆 /END
Liz Bourke@garius The cat pictures are the art that first got my attention. :D
Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱@garius Glad you found each other.
JiSe@garius I have read this thread from you quite a few times. And my eyes are never dry afterwards.
CJ Lemire@garius Thank you for sharing Napoleon's story.
Lis@garius I've followed on TW, but nice to have his story repeated. I hope he'll have a long and happy life full of duvets and scritches. -😻
PS: Is Not My Cat still visiting?
@Lis_Copenhagen yup. that's still a fractious relationship. Not My Cat is still not happy AT ALL that Napoleon seems to have stolen one of his homes, but he now (mostly) accepts it, unless he's feeling particularly fighty.
We basically set up one of my woolly jumpers (Max's favourite) on a chair in the living room. That's Max's chair. Napoleon isn't allowed on it, and Max isn't allowed upstairs.
And that's a truce that they both understand and generally respect.
Karin Sorenby@garius In my world you can post your cat photos as much as you want☺️.. 🙏
Shunra@garius Thank you for sharing the story.
I am an unabashed Napoleon fan, and am so glad and relieved that he is homed and loved.
Quixoticgeek@garius never apologise for cat photos. Some of us came for the cat photos, and stuck around for everything else.
Laura J Mixon@garius That is a lovely, lovely story. Thank you for sharing this.
thatdosbox@garius this is a great thread to wake up to. Glad you found each other.
Knitronomicon@garius We're not sorry. (At least, I'm not.) The Adventures of Napoleon are something to look forward to every day.
Bethan M. Jenkins@Knitronomicon @garius *raises hand* me too! I know the story but still read the whole threads whenever they appear 😍
Sharon Ní Chorbáid@garius Troublesome? What blasphemy! You just need to properly respond to his needs and not deny him dinners/burritos/bedtimes
Frank@garius 🤗 I love this so much and I love that Napoleon finally found his family! What a wonderful story!
Juliet E McKenna@garius we have been visited intermittently by a big, burly local stray for a couple of years now. We took him to our vet when he turned up injured a while back and got him chip-checked and neutered. Vet said he'd been a stray for a long time. He continued to do his own thing - until the brutal cold snap just before Christmas when we realised he was living under various beds. He has now moved in and that same switch to duvet monster/lap cat has been flipped. Meet Ronin.
@JulietEMcKenna happy kitty!
Alan Bellingham@JulietEMcKenna @garius When I was young we lived out in the north Bucks countryside, about a mile from the nearest dwelling. We had one cat appear out of nowhere one day and adopt us. About two years later he disappeared and we never saw him again - we have no idea if he'd just moved on, or fell prey to something
A pedigree-mix we had did on occasion visit the nextdoor farm. Cat ranges can be quite large
@bellinghman @JulietEMcKenna Napoleon has cost us about £3.5k in vet fees this year. It turned out that stress/early lifestyle had built up to major urinary blockages.
Bluntly, that would have killed him if he hadn't been with us at that point, and we'd spotted he was getting distressed.
Apparently that's the cause of death very young for a LOT of male ferals/strays.
Martin Vermeer FCD
Romain Pouclet@garius that was so cool to read, thank you for sharing and welcome Napoleon ❤️
⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe@garius You do NOT have to apologise for that.
Wendy MsGator 🐊Napoleon never made it to Moscow. This kitty would have done it. Thank you for sharing his/your journeys.
Kristin Bailey@garius what a handsome fellow
@garius there’s something about the way like diffuses on a black cat’s fur that is just gorgeous
David Slifka@garius wow how beautiful! Wtg!!
Flamekebab
Artemis Persists@garius Everrything about this story is beautiful and full of love. What a fortunate kitty to have found such patient and kind humans.
CypherS@garius my very own purring void has made the same decision. Stealing food is good. Sleeping inside is better.
Now, I can only hope he will stop assaulting our neighbor’s cat, who did not asked to be attacked at their own home.
Now, I can only hope he will stop assaulting our neighbor’s cat, who did not asked to be attacked at their own home.
B.ella@garius Thank you so very much! For giving Napoleon a home and for sharing your story. This has made my day! Have fun loving this cute little bugger.
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JW prince of CPH@garius I'm not crying you're crying 😭🥰
Huey@garius lovely story! Thanks for all the catposting, always welcome around here.
Distractedly Different@garius the cat distribution system works in mysterious ways. I'm glad it bestowed this adorable void on you.
Michael@garius goddammit, I am not supposed to cry at work.
Brian Perry@garius Beautiful story, thank you for sharing it.
Dgar
Rachel Greenham@garius oh yeah. if it wasn't obvious before, at this point it should be pretty obvious "you have a cat" 😀
Aodh the sorcerer@StrangeNoises @garius No. You never have a cat, the cat have you and Napoleon decided to have you as a proud cat slave. 😋
Frank Bennett 🇯🇵@garius He must have gone duvet hunting and come up empty.
Y Gath Goch@garius i need to go to bed, but this thread has got me😍 Imma give my ex feral a big hug tonight