Thursday 3 November 2011

Alone again...


This has been such a horrible week, my loves: on Tuesday, I took Daisy to The Wood Green Animal Shelter in Godmanchester to be rehomed :-(

The photo below shows some of the wounds I received from her on Sunday.  They may not look like much (it wasn't easy taking a photo of my right arm using my left hand) but they were incredibly painful ~ as I am sure you can imagine.

Daisy had been becoming more unpredictable since she was spayed, lashing out and hissing for no reason.  A couple of weeks back I was sitting on my armchair, with the foot-rest up, and she attacked both my feet.  It was so unexpected and just came from nowhere.  Then on Sunday she climbed onto my lap and then just launched herself at my arm, puncturing my skin as you can see.  I have more puncture wounds further round my arm and another on my thumb.  She then leapt off, walked around the footstool and attacked my feet just as she had done previously.


It was extremely frightening, to be honest; she just went absolutely wild. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I cried, not only with the pain but also because of the shock of it all. Adrian was stunned, too. In fact, her had to chase her away from my feet because she didn't want to stop.

On Monday I made an appointment to see our lovely vet who checked Daisy over and said that she certainly appeared to be in good health with no pain issues. The vet, Sarah, wasn't happy at all with the punctures and after looking at them for a second time told me that if they had been bite wounds, she would have insisted that I go to A&E to have them checked over.

We discussed what could be making Daisy behave in this way and Sarah said that it could well be that she is part feral, especially since the unpredictable behaviour has become worse since she has been spayed. It could also be that she is going a bit "stir-crazy" being a housecat; the vet nurse I spoke to when I made the appointment said that ordinary domestic moggies don't really make terribly good housecats.  Sarah said that we really can't live with Daisy being so unpredictable, and of course, it could be dangerous if she were to attack a visitor ~ especially someone like my Mum, who is diabetic. She has suggested that we could seek advice from a cat behaviourist but if Daisy is feral then this may not make much difference. Other options are to try to rehome her to somewhere like a farm for instance or to allow her the freedom to go outside rather than keeping her indoors. The last option, if all else were to fail, would be to have her put to sleep :-(

Frankly, I didn't think that it would be that easy to rehome Daisy ~ let's face it, farms generally have more cats than they actually need or want as it is. Euthanasia would truly have had to have been the very last resort ~ she is only about two years old, for goodness sake!  It was just so awful here after I came back from seeing the Vet; my arm and feet were so sore and I was nervous each time Daisy approached me or walked by *sigh*  Adrian and I discussed things and in the end decided that we would open the door to the back garden the following morning.

In the end, though, I just couldn't bring myself to let her go outdoors here; we live on such a busy road and if she had been run over then I would never have forgiven myself.
 
I telephoned The Wood Green Animal Shelter and spoke with a really lovely lady there.  She immediately told me that Daisy was exhibiting all the signs of total frustration at being kept indoors.  Other signs include things like excessive grooming, something which Daisy was starting to do.  The Wood Green lady totally understood my reluctance to let her go outside and said that they would be prepared to accept her for rehoming. 

So, sadly I took Daisy to the Shelter on Tuesday.  The staff were so kind and told me that I had done all that I could for her. They don't rehome their cats as wholly indoor ones so she will hopefully be found a new home where she can gradually be introduced to the outside world.  I just had no idea that things would turn out this way; she had been living as an indoor cat for two years prior to coming here.  I have since been told, though, that apparently Daisy "could be spiteful" at times ~ unfortunately I did not have that information before taking her on :-(

I still feel pretty terrible right now even though everyone keeps telling me I have done the right thing for Daisy and for us. I'm as tearful as I was when Amber passed away back in April and once again my home feels empty.  We will not have another cat whilst we still live here on this road.

However, Adrian and I have decided that we will give ourselves a little time and then adopt two small dogs.  I just can't bear the house feeling so empty..... 

2 comments:

Sharon said...

So sorry about this, no, you can't live with a cat that is going to be attacking you. Who knows about the workings in a cat's mind? She is so pretty and I know you are going to miss her. Hopefully they can rehome her somewhere in a safer outdoor environment so she can be the cat she was meant to be.

{{{HUGS}}}

SharonLarkin said...

Thank you Sharon...