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My name is Sarah and I have been a fosterer since November.

 

I am now fostering my 4^th cat, Timmy, who I had to collect from his home.  This was upsetting as the family didn’t want to part with him but he had attacked the young child in the family.  He didn’t seem very happy in the pen at first, as he was an outdoor cat but did like the occasional cuddle, when he wanted.  Later I spent some time with him.  He had eaten, and enjoyed some fuss.  The following morning he came out to greet me for breakfast.

 

Later that day, my son and I spent some time with him and tried to take some photos – he wasn’t very cooperative!  We had been making a fuss of him for about 15 minutes when he attacked me viciously, drawing blood.  I had to pull him off of me with my other hand.    I immediately put trigel on my hand which initially hurt more than the wounds.  I thoroughly washed my hands and put more trigel on. Soon my hand started to swell and throb but I thought that it would look a bit better by the morning. 

  

The next morning I fed Timmy but I was not very happy with him.  I had now become very wary of him.  My hand was looking a lot worse so I went to the doctors, who said I should have gone to hospital when it happened and prescribed a very strong course of antibiotics as I had cellulitis.  I also had flu symptoms which were due to the infection in my hand.  If it looked any worse by morning I would need to be hospitalised and put on a drip. Fortunately it didn’t.

 

I now hated Timmy and found it difficult to work in this situation as my hand was very painful.  I put gloves on when I went to feed him because he could attack me again.  If he was sat on the shelf inside his pen he found me an easy target and would hit me every time I left.  I was advised to reward him for good behaviour.  At the time I thought I wouldn’t have to do this very often.  If he was good all day I would give him a treat at bedtime.  This became a regular occurrence.

 

Over time, Timmy’s behaviour has improved significantly and he is now a lovely lap cat.  He is very affectionate but can still be temperamental.   I hope he finds a home soon but I will be sad to see him leave as he has changed so much.  He has become a big part of my life and I will never forget him.