Day 1 Tuesday 18 July

We picked the cat up from the Cats Protection League at 12am. It was the beginning of a heat wave. Using the living room as the safe room, we took her in there and she bolted as soon as the carrying cage was opened and found a way in behind the sofa. Had closed windows and shut the curtains as the room faces south but it was still hot. She came out and went back there several times. She came out when offered cooked cod and we tried to block off the exits but she clambered over the sofa till she found another way in. Very scared, very anxious, physically starting at every extraneous noise on the street, and continually looking this way and that, taking in everything around her. Very interested in the walls and what is on them.

About 5, Maria tried to entice her from behind the sofa with a spoon of fish, but cat came out at her yowling, hissing, ears flattened, claws wide apart, absolutely furious and very bad tempered. Maria backed off. I tried to sit down on the sofa and she attacked the arm and I backed away, and she went back inside making a sort of apologetic sad meow. Left the fan angled to blow along the back of the sofa to cool her down and left her alone for a couple of hours.

And when we came back, sat on the sofa and put on the news, she came out and wandered round the room exploring it. Wanted to climb and examine everything, including a tiny space under the alcove shelving, and climbing into the space between the gas fire and the back boiler before backing out, again a minute space. Apart from talking to her, we have done nothing but watch and encourage and stroke her a little if she comes near and responds to a held out hand. Obviously loves having her head rubbed.

She sat for ages looking at the openings at the top of the window, as if calculating how to get up there, so in the end I went and closed down the windows to 3 inches at the top. We only have them open a couple of inches at the bottom.

Still playing with names. Suzie, Chloe, Tigger, Lily, but she is so nervous and unsettled that I want to wait till her personality comes out more.

Day 2. Wednesday 19 July

Went in for early morning tea when it was still cool, and closed the curtains and window until the sun was over the house, She was out, having spent the night behind the loudspeakers and much less nervous and showing more interest in us, but will not come on to the sofa, preferring to rub her head against your shin and be scratched all round her head and neck and ears.

She still wants to get somewhere safe and dark and enclosed. Spent much of the time out in the open looking up at the plants on the walls, the book cases and travelling round the edge of the room trying to get as high as she could. Never seen anything like it. Supercat! Likes lying sprawled along the top of the armchair, looking like a sphinx and smelling all the scents coming through the bottom of the window from the streets below. She is very pretty indeed, very thin and very nervous, still with the shaved patch of skin from the spaying operation three weeks ago.

Sitting there alone in the living room, I got her attention and patted and scratched the sofa beside me and she suddenly bounded over and was standing over my hand but did not know what to do next and so, turned her back on me, let me stroke her a couple of times and then jumped down.

Had told Maria about cat toys and how they spend hours playing with things, so I tried her with a table tennis ball, and no real reaction. I rolled it out of her sight round the corner of the chair and we got the complete crouch, draw up and tense muscles, three bum wriggles and pounce routine, which just fascinated Maria, who had never seen such things before, never having been a cat owner.

So Maria got a ball of wool and rolled it towards her. And pandemonium broke loose. Cat fought the most incredible battle with this ball of wool, lying, standing, sitting, sometimes underneath, sometimes on top, biting twisting, pulling, funniest thing I have seen in ages. Maria was entranced. She has begun to realise that there are dimensions to cats that dogs cannot reach. It ended with her jumping on her back into the water and food bowls and she fled to the safety of the coffee table and watched us clean up the newspaper and lay fresh.

So the evening went by with her coming and going, spending more time with us and lying out on the floor in the shade of the fan. We blocked up the sofa entrance and she now goes behind the floor standing speaker in the corner.

Watched a programme about lions, leopards and cheetahs and the similarities are remarkable, she has very tiger-like markings despite the fact that she is a tabby with brown in, and huge yellowy green eyes that look slightly surprised. Also a white chin with beautiful delicate stripes and spots on her cheeks! Their shapes are so similar and they move in such similar ways.

Couldn’t sleep and came downstairs and put the TV on. The next thing I know she has come and padded along the sofa and sat down beside me and wanted to be petted, even lying on her back and rolling over and exposing her stomach. So I petted away and to my amazement and delight, purrs, the first since she has been here. And chirrupy purring, little squeaks of pleasure on the in stroke. Given the dreadful weather – it was the hottest day ever recorded, 36.3, though I managed to keep the living room down to 30 with fans and a little breeze – she is settling in surprisingly well.

Day 3 - Thursday 20 July

Maria up early and playing games with her, a string and the ball of wool with the addition of a ball of aluminium foil, absolutely thrilled and excited and like a ten year old again. She has got behind the sofa in the night and we have mixed feelings about blocking it off again. She is much more friendly and willing to be touched.

We have decided she has to be Lily, symbol of purity innocence and beauty (the blasted internet again – you need cat names and you can find loads of sites devoted to them!!!) and she looks like a tiger. Hence Tiger Lily! I am not too sure whether she is not a little too ditsy to be a Lily, but we will see.

M has been introducing her to the scratching post but she is far more interested in scratching all the furniture. She played with it but got a claw stuck at the top which might have put her off. Maria has found a website of games you can play with cats – can you believe it? Although I must say I was glad to have them when we had the temper tantrum on the first day and could look up advice about dealing with scared cats, and lessen the feeling that we had somehow provoked the situation by being too friendly.

We left her in her hole for the hottest part of the day, and because we had to work. Working at home with a new cat means you do not do any work because you are so fascinated by this creature whom you have resumed some responsibility for, and who is little, slim, petite and gorgeous and who does not seem to really realise it yet!

So Maria had to go out past the 99p shop. Very dangerous, and she reappeared with a sisal covered, catnip treated base, and a long spring that you screwed into it, with a sort of furry mouse on the top which was hollow and gave that rustling, scratching sound that cats love. Well, it was yesterday’s pandemonium all over again but with the toy in one place. You can trap the pretend prey with a paw, but it springs up into the air again, providing hours of fun for the cats and great entertainment for new owners.

Having made MY scratching post rather than buying one, I sniffed at this factory made game but am completely won over by its utility. And the battles are ferocious.

Lily has started to get much more relaxed and comes over and brushes her head against your shins when you come into the room. And that tail is being held high more and more, despite the occasional bit of tail lashing from the heat.

The evening went by with Lily determined to explore the high up places in the room. She carefully negotiates her way round all the objects, plant pots, candle holders etc and managed to get herself half way up the bookshelves that go up to the ceiling, all the time looking up as if she is looking for a place she has lost. And while in the midst of this height obsession, she emits the odd plaintive yowl and miaou. And then she chooses her spot on the floor out of direct line from the fan, and lies outstretched. She also sits there like a sphinx opening and closing her eyes with pleasure.

Day 4 – Friday 21 July

We blocked off the entrance to the sofa with a board and two magazine racks and went to bed. We came down in the morning to find the magazine racks on their sides and the board pulled away from the opening. How she does it I just don’t know. So I guess it is third time lucky for her and I give up on preventing her from getting in there. When we went in she came straight out to be fondled, but always on the floor and always only for a few seconds. Maybe that is the way she is.

Not the hottest day, but certainly the most humid. So we have left fans on in the room, closing the windows and curtains until the sun has gone from the windows and keeping the bottoms open a couple of inches. Today has seen many changes in Lily. She now comes out of her safe hole whenever we come in the room and comes and greets us. She is just so much more relaxed and trusting with us. She starts less when she hears extraneous noises and she purrs when she is touched, but always on her terms.

I put a piece of plastic sheeting under the litter tray and she used it increasingly to lie on. I guess it must be cooler than carpet, in the same way that Milton our dog, used to splay himself out on the kitchen floor under the table because it was the coolest place in the house.

We had another spate of her climbing round the room, accompanied by the odd plaintive meow as if she is trying to find some place in her memory but is unable to find it. But she is now coming and lying on the sofa between us and inviting us to rub behind her ears and on her head, as well as rolling completely on to her back and wanting her tummy rubbed. We are besotted. Watching her become more confident and trusting is just so rewarding. We cannot imagine what kind of a life she must have led where she is so desperate to find somewhere high and safe. Or maybe she is naturally a climber!

We are starting to think about letting her out to explore the rest of the house, but Maria is painting and reorganising her atelier, so we have decided to complete this and let all the paint dry before letting her out on Day 6, which is almost the week that the Cats Protection League said we should keep her in one room for. Having experienced what we have, I can well understand the necessity of the safe room and the importance of gradually letting her get used to her new home and life.

She had a bit of diarrhoea today, but that could be because we fed her titbits of tuna yesterday. She is so clean it is unbelievable. Maria poured her some clean water and she spent about a minute looking at the surface of the water and moving a couple of specks of something before drinking. And she MUST be intelligent, because she gets round all our attempts to block up the entrance to the back of the sofa.

I had forgotten how much fun it is to see a cat washing. Particularly her head, which she washes by licking her fore-paw several times then rubbing it down her head and face. We talk to her a lot, repeating her name, and she lies there on the plastic, half sphinx like, half lying and half closes her eyes with pleasure. Is it anthropomorphic to believe that she understands she is the object of our attention?

Day 5 - Saturday 22 July

An absolutely dreadful humid night, where for the first time we slept with a fan on, and Lily seems to be coping with it all, with a smaller one. Maria up first and went into a very warm welcome from her, and another ferocious fight with the spring mouse, half of which has now come away from the top. When it goes, we will have to make something stronger, maybe from leather. As for Maria, she just grins from ear to ear all day. There is something about taking on responsibility for a homeless animal which makes you feel good, almost as if you are becoming a parent, which in a way, you are.

Coming down later after a gaga lie in, no sign of her, but as I open the Saturday papers she is out, announcing her presence with a little chirrup and wants to be stroked. And she purrs and purrs, despite the weather. We feel we are doing the right thing to make her feel secure in this room before letting her loose on the rest of the house, which will have to be checked before she is let out.

She seems to go back to her sofa hole when we are not in the room but when we are, comes out and lies wherever she likes, plays again and again with the mouse spring, which we have had to sew up and will not last much longer. It’s been so hot and so hard keeping the room cool, two fans in use now. I will be glad to open the door to the house.

The evenings are becoming a real pleasure. She is lying on the plastic sheeting to keep cool, the news finishes and she gets up, calls out to us and comes padding over to rub her legs against our legs and be stroked. She is absolutely priceless and we are starting to feel owned! Which is as it should be. As Churchill said “I like pigs. Dogs look up to you, cats look down on you but pigs treat you as equals”.

Once again we are treated to her climbing round the living room, leaping to the top of the CDs in the alcove this time and crying out in this plaintive way and continually looking into the corner of the ceiling, almost as if she is trying to get somewhere but can’t.

But she is just so much more relaxed and feeling pleasure in our company.

Day 6 – Sunday 23 July

We let her out into the rest of the house today. Interesting how she tensed and shyly went out into the hall and hid behind the shoe rack before working out her next move. And she worked her way round the house before making underneath our bed her centre of operations and roving from there. We found her or evidence of her in the bath several times. She has not been on our bed. This is Interesting because I would have thought that our scent there would have attracted her. Maybe she wasn’t allowed in a previous existence.

Maria played with her some but she could not really settle and kept coming down stairs, eating a biscuit or wandering round the living room before scampering off to do something else. She is frightened rather than fascinated by the bead curtain in front of the office but slinks under and through it rather than pushing through it in a business like manner and going in.

We went upstairs for a doze and she was under the bed the whole time we were there and did not come out till we had gotten up.

A fellow cat owner came round to visit and was captivated and Lily came and sniffed her and butted her hand and accepted all the attention as if it were her due. She also has a Lily cat , two black ferals and a three legged cat with one eye called IPod who have all adopted her along the way. She had several stories to tell about cat’s initial behaviour upon adoption and did not find Lily’s climbing behaviour odd.

We started swapping stories and I burst into “she’s my Lily of Laguna”, the only line I could remember from a song when I was a child. Of course the internet provided the answer and we found a 1927 version of the song which dates back to 1898, written by a Salford man who specialised in sentimental songs in blackface and singing in a mock negro way, doing a sort of Al Jolson routine. Such songs were very popular then. Here’s the chorus

She's my lady love,
She is my dove, my baby love,
She's no gal for sitting down to dream,
She's the only queen Laguna knows;
I know she likes me.
I know she likes me
Becase she says so;
She is ma Lily of Laguna.
She is ma Lily and ma Rose.:

To hear it, go to http://dismuke.org/how/prev2-05.html

I realise that without a door into the kitchen it is going to be hard to stop her going up on to surfaces. Now I think about it, I went to the kitchen to get a drink and she jumped down from the draining board on to the bench and down behind the table and ran out earlier this evening. I guess it is still her first day and we need to let her settle in before building in ground rules. Or should they be there from the beginning so that we are not indulgent and they are not confused?

She came out of the bed room to watch Maria in the bathroom performing her ablutions, washing her face and cleaning her teeth with an electric toothbrush with a quiet intensity, taking a great interest in every movement and sound that she made. Maria now thinks she is the most intelligent cat in the world. And I guess cats do have a kind of intelligence.

Lily is really quite young. She may be almost fully grown but there is a spontaneous rapturous rippling of muscles and a nervous dancing grace in her movements. When she plays or makes a mock dancing, bouncing pounce, before fighting and biting and leaping away, it’s like seeing the dance of life itself.

As I write this, Maria has gone to bed and I can suddenly hear the faint pattering of very fast moving feet in the distance. Lily is charging around the hall in the half light up and down the stairs and along the landings. She’s just a big kid and she is bringing out the kid in us. Which is a good thing.

Then we have the drama of the insect. An insect flies into the office with Lily in hot pursuit. Out of her reach she sits there stretched upright with a wide open mouth half hissing and half making a strangled yelp of anger watching very intently and making mad attempts to catch this fly as it flies into the light, rebounds and makes crazy drunken circles around an enraged Lily. Finally she loses her balance, slips off the desk and dashes out of the room as the insect heads off into the night.

Went to bed very late and just falling asleep and I hear this huge purring sound, and Lilly walks down the side of the bed, past my head, purring like she was fit to bust. What more can you ask?

Day 7 – Monday 24 July

Another hot day and we are doing out best to stay cool and out of the sun. Lily comes and goes for most of the day. At lunchtime we find her sitting in the middle of our bed and purring away like a grampus! I sit in the living room having lunch and she bounds in, sniffs something then bounds out of the room, returning minutes later at a leisurely walk and comes and lies next to me on the sofa, not purring but just enjoying the companionship, or so it seemed to me. The next minute she is off and disappears for a couple of hours, before coming in and calling out for dinner. She is getting us well trained.

The evening went by with her coming and going, being with us when she wants to and going off to do her thing too. At night when it is cooler, she races at breakneck speed up and down the stairs and round the house. Our appearance in the way does not slow her down in the slightest, she just zips round us.

In the night she came and walked around on top of the bed purring loudly again. We get the impression that this was not allowed before.

Day 8 – Tuesday 25 July

We are awoken by her prowling and purring on the bed and then jumping off. We are not deceived by this, realising that what she really wants is breakfast, as is demonstrated when we get up eventually ourselves.

With curtains and windows shut to keep out the heat in the living room this morning, she gets up on the bookcase and works her way behind the curtain and on to the middle bar of the sash window and all because she is after a fly. She slips and I have to go and help her as she can get no purchase on the glass to get back up. Finally, still chasing flies, she knocks over the large potted ficus plant in the corner alcove which cascades earth all over her and the floor behind the TV, and banishes herself to under the bed in the bedroom. Well, the living room needed a hoover anyway but we are going to have to reign in her window climbing activities.

It’s been a hot day and worse because we cannot have the windows fully open for fear Lily will leap out. She comes and says hi and then goes, usually to the hall upstairs and lies on the wood in between the rugs up there. Maybe it is cooler there.

We get the impression that Lily did not get much stroking or attention from her previous owners, but it is difficult to know given the sultry humid nature of the weather, whether this is true or not. I think we are a little disappointed that she does not seem to want much attention from us.

Day 9 – Wednesday 26 July

Can it get any hotter and humid? We are sleeping with the fan on, and it is impossible to sit in any room in the house with the windows open without a fan. No fan equals discomfort, oozy stickiness and irritation. Lily came up this morning to walk round the bed and let us know it was breakfast time and then we have seen almost nothing of her all day. Maria has been to cat behaviour websites (mind boggling!) and come back with the fact that when it is hot, cats like to seek out somewhere dark and vegetate. And she is under the bed.

She is still coming out when she hears the tell tale buzz of a fly and making this crying-hissing noise with her tail lashing from side to side then leaping into the air and doing aerobatics trying to catch any insects. She caught a big one last night and sat in the hall crunching it up before a perfunctory wash and off to find the next one.

I rigged up a mesh screen over the patio doors and we got them open this afternoon. I have also opened the windows wide where she cannot get down into a garden easily. It doesn’t make much difference to the inside temperature. Maybe WE would be better off under the bed. From her climbing expeditions, she seems well able to jump distances so we have only been opening the sash windows a couple of inches at bottom and more at the top, but this is silly and opening them may have ridden rough shod over Maria’s objections but Lily IS careful and we have to trust her.

Lily is hell bent on ridding the hours of any flies and the most stupendous aerial acrobatics pursuits that I have ever seen are taking place at night. She is totally fixated with rage upon these insects her head and eyes following every swoop and circle of these flies. Woe betide them if they come within her leaping circle. And she is catching them!

Day 10 – Thursday 27 July

If anything, it’s hotter and more humid. We are seeing very little of Lily but she pops out, wanders around the room, brushes against our legs and then wanders off. We have had to replace the mouse-on-a-spring with a ball-on-a-spring, but it has not had the same effect.

We now have the windows completely open and in the evenings, Lily sits comfortably in front of the view, relaxed and enjoying the sounds, smells and view of the street scene. That is until a fly comes in through the window and then all hell breaks loose. The sound she makes is hysterically funny, with her mouth agape and this hissing/strangulated sort of ululation, which somehow sounds completely unlike a cat.

Lily now seems to be in a competition with herself to run out from behind the sofa, dash to the top of the stairs and come pounding back dodging any obstacles or people in the way without any slowing of pace, finally leaping over Maria’s basket and diving into her hole behind the sofa. She must have done this 6 times this evening just to please herself. She is like a long streak of raging energy, set free by the cooler air after the thunderstorm which came down early evening.

She comes over and wreaths our legs with her cheek and tail and will allow petting for 10 seconds and then wanders off and out of the room. Of course we are asking ourselves whether she likes us and whether we are doing the right things with her. So it is salutary to describe how after we went to bed last night, after 3 minutes of darkness, the full on, maxed out chirruping purr erupted and continued as Lily began a promenade right round the bed, allowing us to stroke her for a few seconds but purring even when not being touched. Then she got down off the bed and went to sleep. But what a way to fall asleep, with the memory of this sound bouncing around in the brain. And she is sooooooooo beautiful, as Maria says.

Day 11 – Friday 28 July

A much more bearable day today, but the routine does not change. Lily does her thing and wanders into the office or Maria’s atelier to say hello. She will sit there in the position of the sphinx looking around. She catches your eye and stares at you. I do what I used to do with Sam, and copy her closing then opening her eyes, all the while looking at her. She will do the same and then close them again. According to the cat’s behaviour website, this indicates pleasure and is a form of communication. We are doing this several times a day. She will also call out to one of us in the same way that we say hello to her, and she has a variety of sounds that we are only just beginning to get used to.

This evening her ladyship has deigned to spend a couple of hours sprawled high up on a little table just below the window put there by her thoughtful parents for her delight and edification. And as I sit here writing this in the office, I hear the tinkle of the Peruvian seed curtain at the door, and a few seconds later the faintest touch of fur brushes my calf as Lily passes by, smells the air from the slightly open window from under the desk then walks out again. That is life with a cat!

Day 12 – Saturday July 29

I went down to visit the parents for the day, so Maria had Lily to herself. Maria went for a doze in the afternoon and Lily got on the bed and the chirrup purring began and went on and on. But she does not settle down, preferring to sleep elsewhere. And the greatest battles took place with the mouse on a spring, which is now very damaged, with its skin hanging down the spring.

I came back and went to bed late and Lily came and greeted me when I came upstairs and went under the bed. As I lay there in the dark, preparing myself for sleep, the faintest of sounds indicated that Lily was on the bed and the chirrup purring began. She came and lay down in the hollow created by the space between our legs and I felt her gently settle her back against my calf and relax. She stopped purring, so I went to sleep with this gentle warmth and pressure against my calf muscle. This is very relaxing and sleep inducing.

Day 13 – Sunday July 30

The days are falling into a pattern. After breakfast Lily disappears for a bit and then usually comes and checks the two of us out individually. She does her thing, and is spending more time with us in the living room in the evenings. These always include a session of her running from the top of the house to the living room at breakneck speed, twisting as she comes through the door and leaping behind it to dive behind the sofa. Then she comes out to see if we have noticed. When we go to bed, she is under it and then comes out, gets on the bed and does a promenade round the outside of it and us, purring loudly. She will permit a stroke and even an ear rub, but does not stay, sleeping either on the floor or under the bed.

Day 14 – Monday July 31

I went to have forty winks this afternoon, and suddenly realised that a faint mewing was intruding upon my consciousness. Thinking it was Daisy from downstairs I ignored it, but it kept on going. Eventually I went to the window and looked. No sign of Daisy. So I opened the door, and Lily walked in. She wanted to come in the bedroom to her place under the bed and was calling out for me to let her in. Yes, Churchill was right, cats DO look down on you.

At night, we had the same routine again, Lily promenading round the bed with the chirrup purr generating in the background, then going under or beside the bed to sleep. I woke up when it was still dark and she was doing the same again. That is going to have to stop!

In the morning she comes and does it when it is light. Maria lightly strokes her and she stands there and will purr away loudly but all the while looking around at something else, which she will then go and investigate. We think that she must have been banned in a previous existence.

She has now been with us two weeks and it feels very much as if she has made this her home. I think it would be okay to let her go out on the patio, but Maria is concerned that she will jump down on to Emma’s flat roof, a jump of about 5 ft, and I think she is worried that Lily will get hurt in some way. I think we have to have confidence in her ability to detect danger. We now leave the windows open at the bottom during the day and sometimes she goes out on the window sill. But mostly she just sits on the little table we put up, her head level with the opening, and watches what goes on outside.

Day 15 – Tuesday August 1.

Things continue to progress with Lily spending more and more time with us. I went into Maria’s atelier yesterday to find her curled up in a little ball under the table by her feet. She is VERY interested in Maria’s beads and M is having to be very strict about covering them up when she is not there. She had a doze yesterday afternoon and Lily curled up on the bed beside her. She is very much Maria’s pet but then Maria spends time playing with her, and Lily does her pretend chase behind her into the living room, then leaping over her basket to dive down behind the sofa and out the other end! She loves playing with the ping pong ball in the bath for some reason and is not at all bothered if there are drops in the bath when she climbs in. I have never known a cat do that.

Last night she was comfortably lying out on the kitchen window sill, every so often craning her neck over the edge to look at what is going on below (remember we are on the first floor). It really feels like she is relaxed and comfortable enough to introduce her to the outside, but it is supposed to be a month, so we will wait the full four weeks before we do so. Each day since she came out, I have moved the litter box gradually down the length of the hall and into the back office which is where her exit into the garden will be. I cannot wait for her to go and do her business outside so that we do not have to empty litter trays every day. I really do not want this flat smelling of cat and despite taking turns, I do not enjoy shovelling the ****..

Day 16 – Wednesday August 2

Walked into the kitchen today and Lily was on the table. I turned towards her and she sort of froze and shrank down. I have not raised my voice to her at all, but she was incredibly nervous, but let me lift her off the table and down on to a chair. I was perfectly able to make it clear to Sam (my previous cat whom I had for 12 years) that tables were off limits. However, this did not stop her doing it as I would come downstairs and hear this thump as she hit the floor and dashed under the table. I would then see a slightly sheepish, black cat give me an embarassed look as she knew she shouldn’t do it.

Having said no, not for another week, Maria caved in and we let her go out on to the patio today for the first time and she prowled around sniffing all the plants and then lay down under the garden table. It was pretty windy out there today as the weather has changed and when she came back inside, we shut the door. But it is fine and weather permitting, we will carry on with this.

Lily seems more jumpy with me than with Maria, despite the fact that I always talk to her and touch her when she comes to say hello. I wonder if there were issues with her previous male owner. Maria says it is because I hardly play with her, but I just don’t see it.

Maria went for her doze this afternoon and ended up with Lily lying against her on the bed with her head on her knee. This is quite a vulnerable position and you have to be very trusting before you will do this sort of thing., and it was lovely to see.