Poor Pugwash!

'Frank', as he was then known at the vets' was duly brought into the consulting room and, of course, we couldn't refuse him a new home! He too seemed a large cat, though it was hard to tell his full size as he was very skinny. He looked a bit of a mess with the bare patch where his right eye had been removed and mouth open because of the wiring. Also, the top of his right ear was folded back on itself. This wasn't, apparently, anything to do with the accident but the result of an old injury. Still, he had huge fluffy paws and a nicely plumed tail, so we thought he had potential, besides which neither Stanley nor he batted an eyelid when introduced to each other on the table!

So, on the Monday when we took Stanley back in for his tests, we returned home with a new cat. We had been told that he seemed to have become agoraphopic from being kept in a confined space for some weeks and that he tended to freak out when taken from his cage at the vets', so it might be best to keep him initially where he could only see out in one direction. We have a large 1 metre square pen, used in the past for introducing new cats or for keeping them confined when recovering from illness or injury, so we set it up in the conservatory, covered the top and three sides with an old light coloured bedspread and installed 'Frank' in there. Inside we put our old hooded style wicker cat carrier lined with a cat bed, a hooded litter tray and bowls for food and water.

Pugwash in his pen when he'd been with us about one week
(above and below)

Meanwhile, we thought hard about a new name for him. 'Pugwash' was the first that came to mind but would the name of a children's cartoon pirate be suitable for such a sophisticated looking cat as we thought he would turn out to be? We came up with a good number of possible names but none seemed absolutely right.

Soon, however, it became obvious that this was no cool cat we had taken on! OK, it was understandable that he would be a messy eater while he had his jaw wired up, as the wire must have been uncomfortable, but we sometimes found food spectacularly spattered around as a result of him putting his paws on the edge of the food bowl and tipping it up. We tried various shapes of bowl and combinations of tray, feeding mats etc till this problem was eliminated. He loves his food, bouncing up and down in anticipation and emitting lots of chirrupy noises and squeaky miaows, which sound funny considering his size.

Often, we found him lying down in the litter tray instead of his bed, a habit he'd developed while confined in his cage at the vet. That was easy. We took the litter tray out of the pen and we already had the door of the pen open. This fulfilled a dual purpose as it meant he had to venture out to use the tray and so would be gettting use to being uncaged. We also had half of the top of the pen open so he could jump out if he wanted and so we could pick him up and take him into the main part of the house for cuddles and socialising. If he wanted to hide, then he could settle down inside the hooded cat carrier. He did sometimes still take refuge in the litter tray while it was outside the pen but we solved that one by removing the lid for a few days!

We noticed that Pugwash, as we were calling him by then, became more social and lively in the evening and I soon realised that what was freaking him out was things coming at him from his blind side. In daylight, he found this most disconcerting, whereas after dark there was less contrast between what he was seeing one side and not seeing the other, so he was calmer. As time went on, we replaced the hooded basket with a large cat bed and gradually opened and removed more and more of the pen till he was totally unpenned. At this stage, he made a move to sleeping during the day under our bureau which happens to be in our dining room but has lately taken to coming out completely and sitting instead on the mat by the front door, from where he gets a good view of what is happening.

Pugwash had the wiring removed from his jaw and has filled out well, turning into a fine big cat, even larger than his predecessor big Felix and just as playful. He is now friends with both Stanley and Whizzie.

	Some pictures of Pugwash taken after around 6 weeks with us; you can see above and left how the top of his ear is turned over - rather rakish, don't you think? Below: his tongue is sticking out because he couldn't close his mouth properly on account of the wiring.

Below: Two pictures taken recently of Pugwash playing with his favourite toy. See how much fluffier and 'well fed' he looks now?