Henry is now a country cat

Until he came in to the sanctuary, Henry had been a town cat all of his life.    He’d lived mostly indoors and when his people decided to emigrate, one of the difficulties was finding Henry the right home.   Not as easy as re-homing an ordinary cat, Henry is special.   Looks can deceive and that innocent, softie expression is very deceptive.   Henry is confident, clever, lively and accepts humans on his own terms – ‘don’t touch me unless I ask you to’ – I ignored this on the first day (well he looks so sweet) and the laceration bled for 30 minutes!   Henry has a lightning strike!

His owner had told me that he thought Henry would make a good mouser and that the outdoor life might suit.   We like cats to get used to us before we give them their freedom so it was a pen and a run to start with.   Henry smiled at us but that was only to lure us into a false sense of security, the claws were out and he was on the attack if we attempted to fuss him.   It wasn’t that he was frightened or timid.  Henry is a confident cat.    He is also perceptive and shrewd – when he’d worked out how the doors and runs and pop holes worked, he was ready to make his first escape attempt.   We were outwitted and outmanoevured and had no chance – a feint, a dance, a twist, hop, skip and jump, a dive between legs and  Henry was free.

The anxiety was tremendous.  How would we ever catch this feisty character cat?    Would we ever even see him again?   We had visions of him going feral and living on the fringe of society never to come indoors again.   He’d go thin, raggedy, be miserable.     No worries, Henry was smug and satisfied and he loved being out.   From being a city slicker all his life, he had turned overnight into a farm cat, climbing on the hay bales, mousing in the barn, stalking creatures we couldn’t see through the long grass in the fields and deciding that he wouldn’t relinquish home comforts – he came back for food and conversation several times a day.

While he is still a bolshie character with humans, with the other cats he is polite and well mannered.   He doesn’t take liberties and has made no attempt to usurp the leaders or interfere with the feline hierarchy.   He knows his place.   We’re seeing a playful side of him that is fascinating.  He interacts with us and comes up for chats when he hasn’t more important business to attend to.  This is a talkative cat with a lot of things to tell us.   He’s mellowing too, popping back into the cat pens for afternoon tea instead of insisting on dining outside.    And last night, he let me stroke him, a few minutes of fuss and a purr and no claws in sight.   Henry is a happy cat.   What does it say about keeping cats indoors?    Some are fine, but others have such a yearning to walk on the wild side that they can’t relax until they are free.