Princess Sophie

Today we brought home our second foster cat from the local Cats Protection Centre. 15 year-old Sophie is a grey and white and had rather a reputation for grumpiness at the Centre. Certainly our first encounter at the Centre was a little trying with her scratching both Ian and I despite our trying not to upset her. The vet there even called us saints for taking her!

Although it's only been a few hours she seems like a different animal now that we've brought her home. She's both friendly and responsive. Her initial shyness wore off after only an hour and she's spent the afternoon begging for meals and treats. She loves human company, but also seems to be completely comfortable being left alone to amuse herself.

Welcome Sophie.

Polperro

On our last morning in Cornwall Ian and I visited Polperro on the south coast. It's an adorable fishing village with some wonderful buildings.


None of the houses had numbers - instead each had a (presumably) unique name. It must be a daunting task for new postmen. The houses were all different and had lots of unique features like this front door

and this wonderful sign

The pubs were themed appropriately and we saw so many interesting eateries that we could have happily stayed there for a month and gone to a different one each day

Just as well this ice cream stall didn't open until the afternoon otherwise I'd have probably filled myself up before we even went to lunch.

Pockets

Sadly, after only a week at Frog End blood tests showed that little Polly was in serious renal failure, probably caused by her thyroid medication (if she hadn't taken it she probably would have got heart failure so it was a no-win situation). Her health declined quite rapidly and only two weeks after we got her she had to be put down.

Although Polly was only with us for a couple of weeks she touched our hearts far more than we could have imagined. All her wonderful little grumpy noises became so endearing and the way she would sleep really made us smile. How she managed to breathe in this position I'll never know (luckily for us her tail swished constantly so we didn't need to check to make sure she was okay):


Not people to stick closely to pet names we started calling Polly different names within a day or two and she quickly became known as 'Pockets' (from poly-pockets - those plastic wallets that hold papers in folders). The name really seemed to suit her.

We're very grateful to have known her and glad that she spent her last two weeks out of a cage. We will miss you Pockets.