Meet Hallie

Our new kitten! She certainly came to us at the right time with all that happened afterwards with poor Smokey.

She 'found' us a week before we went on hols to England. She was sitting on the windowsill outside our kitchen, mewing. Tried to ignore her but when I went into the cellar/laundry, next thing she was outside the catflap crying. I could see she was only little so opened the door and in she shot, just a wee mite who was really friendly and inquisitive and just wanted cuddles. She looked lost but in good health but given her age we gave her some food which she wolfed down ravenously. We then decided we'd keep her inside overnight then take her to the vet in the morning to see if she had a microchip or tattoo to ID her. We also called around several neighbours to see if they knew of anyone round about with a black kitten but no luck. So after much wondering where to put her we eventually shut her in our large downstairs bathroom with food and a spare litter tray. Smokey knew something was up and didnt seem too happy!

As imagined she had no ID and sadly in France it is all too common for 'pets' to be abandoned so nobody seemed that surprised. The vets told us to go to the Mairie (Town Hall) as they should deal with all lost or abandoned cats and dogs. The woman there told us the SPA (animal protection society) only dealt with dogs and that there were no refuges for lost cats (I knew she was talking rot but she stood her ground).

So back home came the little kitty whilst we searched the Yellow Pages and tried several refuges, only to either have a message saying 'the Voice Mail is full', or 'check our website and leave us a msg there'. One did answer the phone and told us that every Mairie has a legal obligation to deal with lost cats and dogs and must have an official refuge they deal with for this purpose (I knew that woman at our Mairie was talking rubbish!). What to do? Well as you can imagine, by this time we were growing more and more attached to the little mite and as she'd managed to escape the bathroom many times and had even met Smokey, who only really hissed at her once, we decided to let her out to the rest of the house and see how it went.

Our resolve to try to find a refuge waned. We started thinking abut kitty vaccinations, worming, toys, all those kitten things we'd kept since we last had a kitten (Smokey) 13 years ago, oh and we'd need some kitty food as she couldn't eat all his 'Obesity Management'!

She's now official, microchipped, vaccinated, has a pet passport and a name. She's grown a lot in about 5 weeks and alternates between being a little terror and a little angel. I guess that's kittens for you!

I can't get any really good photos of her because I need more light to get shots without flash, and with flash she half closes her eyes, or you get cat 'green eye' which human 'red eye' correction doesn't work on!

My usual evening slob in front of telly position with blankie, pillow and cat(s).....

Smokey didn't seem to mind sharing his blankie with her

I love this one! She looks so tiny compared to my OH!

The following photos were taken after coming back - her size difference isn't really noticeable in photos but before I could pick her up with one hand and now she needs two.

She is actually saying "please don't shine that horrid
flash in my eyes" whilst also grabbing my camera strap to get even!

And then she became even more fixated with water so I'm mostly having to keep her out of the bathroom now.....

Last night I let her play in the basin a bit but as she'd put her head under the tap and got rather wet I thought it was time to stop. Put her on the ground, wiped her head and then a nano-second later she was on the side of the bath about to jump into the basin again when she slipped and managed to scratch my finger whilst falling down, drawing blood again! Oh well at least she is not doing it on purpose, but with a kitten it's hard not to get scratched so the antiseptic is always on hand at the moment!

I'm sure you'll be seeing plenty more photos of her, and who knows, we may even add to the family next summer with a teeny weeny kitten.... we'll see. :-)