Thread by @garius

Well the paperwork is complete. This stupid floof is now officially our cat.

So it's finally time to give him his own thread.

Twitter: OFFICIALLY meet Napoleon.

Let's look at his nine month journey from a hungry, desperate feral to snuggly duvet monster. /1

This is #notMyCat. He lives next door and has always regularly popped in (with his owner's permission) when his they are out and/or their house is on fire.

(Literally. I opened the door to him one day and as he strolled past, Heard alarms/saw smoke and rang the fire brigade)

In late July last year we noticed he was a bit annoyed. It soon became clear why.

Another, much smaller cat was following him around, in obvious love and awe. We christened her #alsoNotMyCat

This was amusing. What WASN'T amusing was when we realised how ragged/hungry she looked

Now we are not cat thieves. But there are 2m stray and feral cats in the UK, most unneutered and most in London. Walthamstow is a hotspot for this.

Her behaviour and desperate state worried us. We spoke to @CatsProtection. They talked us through obvious signs/checks we could do.

The problem: she was UTTERLY TERRIFIED of people. This suggested she was a full feral. But meant she ran at any approach.

But eventually, as she got even thinner and saw us being nice to #notMyCat, she clearly decided she needed to be brave.

She came closer. She asked for food.

I really, really can't overstate how terrified #alsoNotMyCat was of people. Again, we're not in the habit of feeding random cats (and you shouldn't be either) but she was so thin, and hungry that we put a plate down for her.

Over the next few months, we managed to persuade her to cross the threshold into the house (just about) to get food. This also meant we could chip scan her (your local Cats Protection will lend you these) get posters up and confirm she wasn't owned.

Eventually, the lure of dreamies was even enough to tempt her to approach and eat from our hands.

The first time #alsoNotMyCat had dreamies she purred. And immediately jumped about 2ft in the air and ran away.

She scared herself by purring.

I don't mind saying that made me cry

As winter approached, we became increasingly worried about her. Ferals have a life expectancy of barely 2 yrs. it's tough out there. This is why it's so critical to get cats neutered.

Eventually, she would sit in a cardbox by the door.

Cats Protection said they'd help us trap her, but she was still too wary/timid for us to manage it.

But the weather was turning fast. So we gambled on buying her a little kennel in the garden with straw in it for warmth.

When she started using it, we were so happy and relieved.

Every night she would sleep in the kennel, then early in the morning (and in the evening) she would approach for food. We talked with Cats Protection about trapping options, and beyond that getting her homed somewhere.

But then in January she started limping. We had to act.

With effort, we managed to get her to start eating food from within a trap when she came in. Eventually, we managed to trigger it

This was heartbreaking. She looked so betrayed. But it meant Cats Protection could get her to a vet.

We agreed to foster her in our spare room after

I say "with effort" because #notMyCat was not one to pass up free food. We caught HIM about five times before we managed to catch her. Each time he looked at us after with a look of:

I REGRET NOTHING. 😆

A big revelation from the vet trip was that 'she' was actually a 'he'! Just a very tiny, malnourished one. Probably only a year old

I won't lie: fostering #alsoNotMyCat after the vet trip was REALLY hard. There was pooping. There was hiding under the bed. There was a LOT of mess

And A LOT of meowing. Betrayed meowing. "Why won't you let me out?!" meowing. Escape attempts. And still so much worry about people.

We would take turns just sitting in the room and talking to him, to try and normalise our presence. I read @hoyer_kat's book to him. 😆

He would sit on the record player across the room, watching us. And then, one day, as I was reading to him, something wonderful happened.

He just slept.

Not "wake up every hour" sleep. Proper, total, sparko for hours.

I think it was the first proper sleep he'd ever had.

And from that moment on, it was like a switch had flipped in him. It was still a slow journey, but every day he became braver and braver.

Eventually he discovered strokes. And scritches. And naps. He decided he liked strokes and scritches and naps.

Cats Protection had asked us to keep him in for two weeks after neutering, before releasing him as he had no permanent home available.

After a week or so, he finally mastered the litter tray. So we decided to let him roam the house at least.

And that's when he discovered duvets

Twitter, you cannot understand the joy/heartbreak of watching a cat who has spent his whole life without duvets discover duvets.

He loves duvets. He is a duvet dragon. Duvets are his GOD.

And then, one day, he cautiously approached while we were UNDER the duvet and started doing this.

And so we decided that while we had no plans to have a cat, it probably wasn't fair to let him out during the winter. So he could stay for a bit. He still really wanted to go outside, but just for now he could stay.

Meanwhile he kept doing this.

And this.

And this.

Stupid bloody floof.

But he still wanted to go out. Really badly. So eventually, we knew we had to let him go. At least he was neutered now, had his vaccines and was chipped to Cats Protection

As spring arrived, we opened the patio door. He took a quick look back, and then darted away over the fence

We left the patio door open. Because by that point both @BecksBiochemist and I had admitted we'd quite like it if he came back. Even just to visit or for regular meals. But we'd decided it had to be up to him.

And then, about 2hrs later, a little kitty jumped on the bed and...

And so we spoke to Cats Protection again. And did the adoption process/paperwork.

And he finally got a name.

And that is why we can now say that Napoleon is officially part of our household.

No real purpose to this, other than that you lot kept asking for a full Napoleon thread. So this is it. I hope you liked it.

But one thing I will say: Napoleon is not alone. There are so many cats out there like him. And if you have a cat you HAVEN'T neutered, then get it done.

If you live in an area, like Walthamstow, with a big feral problem then there are ways to help these cats, but it needs to be done properly.

Waltham Forest Cats Protection were brilliant with us, and helped us to do it right.

You can see how much that's changed Napoleon's life.

Even just alerting them to a feral (or possibly feral's) existence is a start. Because it allows them to try and "trap neuter and release." That was the plan with Napoleon and why we agreed to foster him after.

And they are always looking for foster homes for this.

But if I can add my own word of caution:

Be careful agreeing to foster.

Or, like us, you might suddenly find yourself with a permanent stupid floofy Emperor of your own. /END