18th January

This morning the kitten had really trashed her pen. There was litter everywhere, and the bed was overturned. At least she had eaten her food. She was back to sitting in the litter tray, having somehow managed to throw all the litter out. I put new food in, and cleared things up as best I could without disturbing her too much. She is still in freeze mode - just sits very still and watches me with worried eyes. She keeps her head still, only her eyes move. Obviously she wasn't in freeze mode all night, from the mess she had made.

This stage is always very hard. I feel so desperately sorry for her. Living outside was rough for her, and here she is warm and well fed. But for the next few days she is going to feel very scared of everything. Poor little thing.

If anyone has any suggestions for a name I'd be grateful to hear them. You could email it to the old cat people's admin address. As I don't know if she is definitely a female, it would have to be a name that would do for a girl or a boy.

I've also got two new ones here, that arrived this afternoon. They are quite huge - Fluffy and Herbie. Herbie had very kindly brought up his tea in the cat carrier, and also evacuated his bowels on the way here. Lovely. I can see I'm going to have problems with their names, as Herbie is much fluffier than Fluffy.

They are now cuddled up together in their pen, having had some biscuits to replace what was lost.

Their owner is moving to France and has found it very hard to part with them. They had quite a few cats, mostly ones they had rescued, and couldn't afford to take them all to France. I understand its not terribly cheap to get pet passports. So they are taking some of them, and two are going to Argae Cottage until homes are found, and these two are here until their new owner can have them, in a week's time.

Why are so many people moving away? Is this weather getting to everyone?