Pages

Subscribe: Subscribe to me on YouTube

Thursday, March 01, 2012

I think we might have a new member of the family...


Amelie loves that cat so much, she's practically spooning it at bedtime.

Even Chloe can't tear herself away...

Living in perfect harmony...
It's like a scene from 'Ebony & Ivory' being played out in our living room.

As it happens, none of us slept very well on Tuesday night. Amelie was kept awake by a persistent cough, I was worrying about the potential cost implications of pet adoption, and Lisa was busy panicking that we're living through the final segment of Cat's Eye, and are all about to die.

By 8:30am, the three of us had been sitting on the bed for an hour, stroking the new cat, while Amelie jabbered on relentlessly about how much she likes it, how cute it is, and that if we can't find its owners, she'll look after it herself. Before adding that if it's a boy cat, she wants it to have kittens with Chloe. At which point Lisa turned to me and said "It feels like Christmas morning". I said "What, because it's all so magical and exciting?". She said "No, because we've been up for hours, no one's had any sleep, and we all feel like death warmed up."

At 9am I phoned the vet, told them our story, and asked if they can scan the cat for a microchip. The lady on the phone checked their database of missing cats, found none that matched the description, and told me to bring it in for scanning. Half an hour later, Amelie and I were at the surgery, watching as a veterinary nurse waved some kind of computerised probe over our stripy friend. She did it three times, just to be sure, but there was no microchip present. She did, however, say she was "pretty sure" the cat's female. And probably less than a year old. I didn't ask for a more qualified opinion for fear of being charged, but the girl seemed to know what she was talking about.

I returned to the receptionist to complete the 'Found Cat Report', which included a description of her appearance and location, plus my contact details in case the owner comes forward, but to my surprise, both members of staff seemed to think I should keep her. Experience has taught them that a caring owner will usually ring around the local vets within a day or two of the cat going missing, and this one had been gone for at least 48 hours - probably twice that. She's not been chipped, doesn't have a collar, and the owner's not reported her missing. As the receptionist put it, "She's so lovely, they don't deserve to get her back".

So we drove home with Amelie in the back seat of the car, asking if the cat belongs to us now. I told her yes - for the time being. So she insisted on choosing a name. Within a minute, she'd plumped for Shamona. Which is something only Michael Jackson has ever said. I think she picked it up from Bo' Selecta! It could have been worse though. With her track record in the naming department, we could have had another Hellodadada on our hands.

To be honest, Lisa and I aren't that keen, but Amelie's so insistent (despite being unable to tell us where she heard it), that we've finally admitted defeat and are going along with it. We are, however, changing the spelling to Shimona. Mainly so that we can shorten it to Shimmy.

Shimmy
No doubt she'll lead us a merry dance...

2 comments:

Kristy said...

I think you should name her "Timmy." Close enough to "Shimmy" for Amelie, but also a find tribute to the original.

Phil said...

Actually, she does look a bit like Timmy... before he became morbidly obese and started resembling a furry Space Hopper.