The arrival of Mr Kit-Kat and Little Jet-Black

 

The story of why Mr Kit-Kat and Little Jet-Black came to live with me can be found in Why Cats Came to Baskerville Manor.

After I made the decision to adopt cats, the questions I had to ask myself were:

• How will the Princess Chloe the First, The Diva and The Big Guy take it? (2 are large breed, 1 is quite big ,  and only one of them with a known good cat relationship)
• Kitten or cat? Well, given the size of the dogs, a kitten who had not had time to develop a sense of self preservation might not do to well.
• One cat? Might feel outnumbered.

So, with two adult cats on the shopping list the next task was to find out what they would need.  Much Google activity and repeats of “My Cat from Hell” later, the list had extended to cat trees, food, beds, bowls, litter boxes, toys and baby gates.  My plan was to follow the wisdom of the internet and house the cats in the attic for the first few days because the dogs don’t like the stairs – to allow them time to settle down, let them have their own space, and so on. The baby gates were for the bottom of the main staircase and the staircase to the attic, so cats could escape enthusiastic dogs if necessary.

Next was to find a pair of adult cats.  There are so many animals needing a new home out there, it’s heartbreaking.  What I couldn’t do was bring traumatised cats into Baskerville Manor which is already full of special-needs dogs, especially when I had no previous feline experience, so true rescue cats were not an option.   I answered an ad from a family who needed to re-home their cats.  Their reasons are their own and very valid, suffice to say that the two boys were cared for, healthy and well-adjusted. Bonus:  they are proven mousers.

After several conversations with the owners, a date was arranged for their move to Baskerville Manor.  The Baskerville Beasties will relate their individual impressions and experiences on their own blogs over the next while, if you are interested, the related stories will all be labelled “The Arrival”.

Halloween

It’s just past 11 pm on Halloween night and fireworks are still going off.
This year I have my three wuffs, plus Duby the visiting ShitZu and the newly-arrived Mr Kit-Kat and Little Jet-Black  to comfort.
I’ve fed them all to the gills, dosed their water with Rescue Remedy and Calm-Eze for the past three days and still the poor canines have spent the evening huddled together under a blanket, afraid to move.  It’s difficult to spot where one dog starts and the other ends. They are doubly upset because the dog next door has not been brought in and he is howling miserably.  So I say it again, I HATE HALLOWEEN!
Thankfully the cats are more insouciant, they are still so curious about their new surroundings that the noises outside have not really caught their attention.

Duby–still in residence

To complicate the arrival of Mr Kit-Kat and Little Jet Black, Duby is still at Baskerville Manor.  Duby’s mum and dad were involved in a traffic accident abroad and will not be fit to travel home until some time in November.

True to his feisty Shit-Zhu personality, the strange things going on in the attic have resulted in him beating a wastebasket to death and also taking a slipper hostage.