GEMMA

Hello, Please let me introduce myself, I am a five year old female cat and my name is Gemma which I think is a shortened version of my full name which must be Gemma Don't Doothat, as that is what seems to be said to me quite often, although this is mainly when I tear up paper or chew plants or chase some of my older cat friends around the house.

I live with two humans who are very kind to me and are always feeding me and telling me how gorgeous I am. One of them keeps telling me that I could win shows for my good looks (Whatever that means I don't know) but I humour them by purring and giving a little meow every time they stop chattering at me.

My life started a lot differently to this, for the first six months of my life I use to be what is called a Feral cat, I lived wild in the grounds of a hotel in somewhere called Alderley Edge, I lived with lots of other cats who like me were always scavenging around for any food we could find and a nice dry place to shelter from the cold and wet. It was far from ideal to the life I am living now but at the time I knew of nothing else and thought that this was the way things were meant to be.

One day while I was out and about around the bins and skips looking for some small morsels to eat I noticed quite a lot of humans in and around where we sheltered and before I knew what was really happening I found myself trapped in one of their cages. It was very frightening as I was carried off away from my normal surroundings and other feral friends and put into the back of one of the noisy machines that we used to watch going up and down the road. The machine that the humans referred to as a car took me to a strange place full of other animals such as dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs and strange humans who kept looking into the cage at me. I was taken out of my cage by a human in a white coat who pummelled me all over, shone a light in my eyes and my mouth and did something with a thermometer thing which I would rather not elaborate on. The next thing I remember I was lying down in another cage and some of my fur had been removed from my stomach area, I felt a little queasy as though I had been asleep for a long time and my stomach felt sore.

I stayed in this cage for a few days I was scared and unsure of what was going to happen to me, the humans though were very kind and gave me food and water, they kept petting me and telling me things I did not understand. After a while another human came to collect me, I was taken away in the strange machine again and transported to a house where I was put into yet another cage which was much bigger than the ones I had been in before, there was food and milk for me in this one and friendly humans who kept on cooing at me through the bars. I was referred to as 'Little Mog' and given tablets to help clear up a cold I had caught from being outside all my life. After a short while my current humans came to see me and also made a great fuss of me and within 3 days I was taken to their home where I live today.

It didn't take me long to settle in and I now am now the Top Cat over the four others who live here, I chase them all but they are not too keen on playing all they want to do is sleep, so I get just as much enjoyment out of disturbing them.

So my life is now purrfect and has been for the past 5 years, I get regular food (Quite a lot actually), plenty of different beds, chairs and sofas to sleep on, five other cats and a dog to boss about and lots of attention from my human friends. What more could a once feral cat ask for. I hope my story will show other humans how much good they could do for my other feline friends who desperately need a home like I did.