Dulcie’s Story. (Part 1)
posted in Cat Stories |In the late summer of 1993, my sister’s neighbour found a tiny kitten wandering in the local churchyard. Too young to be out on its own, but unable to give it a home herself, I was asked if we would like an addition to our family.
I didn’t take much persuading, and that’s how we came to meet Dulcie. Tiny, orange, barely 4 weeks old, with blue eyes to die for. She fit quite comfortably into the palm of my hand, it was love at first sight.
We took her home and introduced her to her new brother and sister, Linus and Grover, our 3 year old cats. She settled in immediately and spent the rest of that first evening sat on Peter’s knee, breaking wind at regular intervals.
We quickly settled into a routine and for around 6 months all was well. Then one evening Dulcie failed to return home with the others when I called. Tours of the local neighbourhood brought no joy and as it got later and later I became more and more distressed. I went to bed around midnight fearing the worst, and Peter stayed up until 3am waiting for her, but there was still no sign.
We were both awake again at 6am and to our joy, there she was on the doorstep, dirty and dishevelled with a wire noose wrapped tightly around her middle. Once we had removed this and discovered that she appeared unharmed, we all went back to bed for a well earned rest.
It was only during the following day that we started to think about what had happend. Someone in our so called ‘quiet residential area’ must have been setting traps. Possibly for rabbits, but Dulcie, being small had been caught instead. We guessed it must have taken her all night to struggle out, presumably by constantly bending the wire too and fro until it finally snapped.
We watched her carefully for the next few days to make sure all was well, and thankfully she was soon back to her normal self. I reported the incident to the local RSPCA, but heard nothing more from them.
For the next 6 months all was well until ———–
