Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Friday 8 October 2010

Cat joys and woes

Gloom.

I blogged earlier in the month about Cleo, our lovely rescue cat. She was beautiful and I really bonded with her, and she with me.

But....

Cleo was being terrorised and beaten up increasingly nastily by Tabitha and Tom, our original cats , who are siblings and have been with us for 2 years now.

Cleo was denied access to the downstairs several times and eventually in desparation wee'd in the wrong place twice (on our bed, saturating the blankets, sheets and matress - yuck).

She was shivering and terrified most of the day, hiding next to me under the bench in the study, was not eating much , and there was little way we could keep them all apart in our house and certainly not in the garden (where they were stalking her in tandem and then both beating her up)

so....she has been re homed to someone who has recently lost their only cat and really wants her.

I am so desperately sad about this, as is Compostman and Compostgirl ( oh...Compostgirl! so upset!) ...but after discussion with the behavioural vet nurse, we all think it is for the best.

Cassiopea kitten, who we got 2 weeks ago, as a rescue cat, is a far more feisty little girl and gives as good as she gets, and T and T have stopped bothering her already but Cleo was shy and scared and disabled and they were just getting worse and worse with her.

I am so sad it has not worked out but we have to think of Cleo and what is best for her. Holed up, terrified and shaking, in a room waiting to be pounced on was not doing her any good. Also Tom and Tabby have lived here for 2 1/2 years, from kittens, and they were/are also very upset by all this....

If we hadn't done something now we would have ended up with 3 very unhappy cats I suspect.

And our lives have been a nightmare as well during this episode...for example Tabby followed Cleo downstairs, waited until she was "positioned" on the litter tray and then shot through the cat flap and pounced on her....Cleo now has a badly scratched ear and Tabby has a flea in her ear...


AND Tom Cat sprayed sofa bed in CG's room the day before Cleo left. Boy did it stink, even though he is neutered. Yuck.

Sofa bed was un salvagable as it has a chipboard base which is now saturated and the non removable cushion stuffings are as well, so it went to the tip. Lovely. The sofa bed was 9 years old and had been well used, so I don't feel too bad but it is annoying as it was useful when Compostgirl had friends to stay.

I hate the smell of cat wee


Then I discovered Tom Cat had wee'd in the clothes basket as well as trashing the sofa bed beyond washing, so spent the rest of the weekend rinsing and washing and re washing clothes, which I didn't need to wash at all and now had to try to dry out. House was festooned with damp clothes. On a rainy day. Even with a dolly in the kitchen roof space, still a bit to many for my taste.And this had been the daily round for three weeks.
Washing basket ( wicker) was also wrecked. Bloody Tom Cat. Grrr.

So..the end result of all this mayhem is ....my Cleo cat now gone to new home Crying or Very sad  new owner is a vet nurse at our vets. Much tears from CG and me as well, but it is all for the best. I tried, oh how I tried ! but she was too disabled to fight them off and they were too mean to stop bullying her.


Am sad. Very sad indeed.

1 comment:

  1. So sorry: it's heart breaking but I hope you can all settle down with less cat wee, knowing that Cleo has gone on to a loving and much more peaceful home.

    :( Hugs xxx

    ReplyDelete

Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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