By John Oliver & Jeanette Elliot features@algarveresident.com
John Oliver and Jeanette Elliott moved from the UK to Portugal around five years ago and live in Ourique, Alentejo. John now follows his lifetime love of documentary photography, while Jeanette trains dogs and breeds Bengal cats as well as teaching belly dancing.
No matter how well you think you know animals, they can always do something totally out of character to show you there is so much more to learn.
I have been interested in animal behaviour since I was a small child and luckily in my varied life had a chance to observe many species, wild and domestic, at close quarters.
When we moved here, nearly eight years ago now, we inherited a cat who had to get used to our own ruler of the house, ‘Sir’ or Trouble as he was named and lived up to.
While they had their moments, they did learn to live in reasonable companionship. At one point, I expanded the ‘pride’ by breeding some fabulous Bengals.
As the kittens were born and raised in the house, it was inevitable that one day there would be a meeting and Rabbit (as he became known) chose one kitten to be his special project.
She became TT (Trouble Two) and a house cat while her mother and the other Bengals lived in the breeding pens.
 Hislop with grateful thanks to APAA and Gia Veterinary |
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Earlier last year, with a dire financial situation getting worse, I gave up the breeding and the breeding girls, together with Gold the stud cat, sadly went off to Spain.
This left two boys who, despite my best efforts to socialise them after the untimely demise of Trouble on the main road, could not be let loose with TT and Rabbit.
Eventually, through the local networking email, they got offered a fantastic new home.
Normally, our house two (and Trouble in his time) would not tolerate another feline on their patch, defending vigorously with speed and determination which put the interloper in no doubt they were unwelcome.
So imagine our surprise when we kept hearing a cat calling and Rabbit coming and going in frustration at something which turned out to be his attempt to get a very badly injured little stray cat to come to the house.
The skinny, pathetic white and patched creature was limping so badly he looked like someone had tied his legs together like a hobbled mule.
He had a large triangular piece of fur missing on his neck, no fur on his ears or his tail tip, his eyes weeping and he was scared stiff of us so hissed and disappeared if we came to see what Rabbit was up to.
There was also a nervous little black cat in tow but that got chased off by our two.
We started leaving some cat biscuit that ours wouldn’t eat on the terrace and eventually this little stray came looking when he heard the door, getting bolder until one day he stayed put while I put the food down and the next day let me touch his back.
Suddenly it was like the proverbial light bulb going off and he discovered a human friend. Now all he wants is a lap to sit on or to curl up beside someone.
He has been wormed, de-flea’d and, thanks to APAA, he has now been tested for Leukemia and neutered, although that part of the story wasn’t entirely straight forward.
We can only guess what happened to this little cat but recently I made a discovery which may shed some light.
In our valley is a large ruin surrounded by rough land. One wall has been pock marked with shot and in the lavatory under the bougainvillea my water dog Carla found the mummified body of a white cat full of shot.
It shows a scenario of hunters’ dogs finding this little family of cats. Having tried desperately to escape up the walls they were shot at. One died after crawling back under cover and Hislop, as we have named him, must have come very close to dying.
When a cat dies, the ears have no blood flow so curl up and the eyes sink back. His ears have had this sort of trauma and the edge of one has sloughed off.
He had entropian in both eyes – where the eyelids roll inwards, something I used to deal with in baby lambs at birth. He was not born with this as the eye balls were not scarred and with patience have been turned out again.
The damage to his neck has healed but is consistent with being caught by a dog and the vets removed a damaged dragged claw when he was out during his neutering op which now means he can walk again although he will always have a pellet lodged on his hip bone.
He has contracted tendons in his front legs which affect his paws but he now gets around reasonably well.
What is really nice was hearing a strange noise a few mornings ago and finding this funny little cat playing like a kitten under the dining table and then scooting past the bed to pat a bit of twig on the terrace.
In case you think TT and Rabbit have had a character transplant, think again, as twice this year stray kittens have hitched a lift here under the bonnet of our car and been seen off in no uncertain terms and a very smart moggie paid a visit the other evening and again was pursued, like an exocet missile locked on to target, across the garden.
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