The world’s luckiest cat

As you know I’m not overly fond of cats. But I have to congratulate a grey kitten I’m going to tell you about on being a real survivor. Here’s the story so far…

Linda heard a kitten in our bushes. It was mewing away like mad. Linda kept me in the house because she knew what I’d do to any cat that dared to come into MY garden. She couldn’t find the kitten, but she put out some milk and food by our garage and opened the side door a bit.

Next morning there was no sign of the kitten and the food hadn’t been touched. Linda asked David and me to keep a look out for the kitten as she was off to England for a short break.

After she’d gone, both David and I thought we could hear the kitten when we went into the garage to get the car out for my walk, but neither of us could find it. That evening we thought we heard it again as we left to have dinner at Rob andJean’s. Still couldn’t find it.

David drove the seven miles to Rob and Jean’s and when he stopped and turned off the engine he could hear the kitten mewing in the engine compartment! He opened the bonnet and could hear it clearly, but couldn’t see it. Later Rob came out to help look and they managed to spot it. Rob got a glove and was able to reach down and catch the kitten as David held back some hoses, leads and whatnots.

Rob and Jean said they’d keep it. They’d recently lost Bee (a dog who was my great friend) to old age, so didn’t have any animals. This was great. David called Jean the next morning and everything seemed great. The kitten was inside, eating and liked to be cuddled. There was a bit of a panic about the kitten learning how to use its litter tray, but that was resolved.

Then there was another trauma for the kitten. Rob and Jean’s neighbours, Bavo and Huggy came to visit. Huggy, who’s a vet, discovered that the kitten had a broken tail! Apparently it had been broken for some time as it was quite infected. So now the poor kitten has just over half a tail left, but is much more comfortable. 

That’s the story so far. Hopefully life will settle down now for the poor thing as it’s used up quite a few of its nine lives. Rob and Jean named it Mercedes to honour its mode of arrival. But Huggy pointed out Mercedes was a boy, so the name was changed to Benz. However, Jean rather liked Mercedes and kept calling the kitten that, but David and Linda’s wine group decided that would confuse the poor thing and voted to call it Benz. Even I wish you well, Mercedes-Benz!