Pixels! Or is it?

Help! I need a name

It’s Sunday, late afternoon (fine, you’re right, it’s not Sunday.  It’s quite obviously Tuesday but give me a break here, we’re pretending we are still on Sunday). 

I’m about to leave the house to go on my Jangles search expedition when the call comes in.  There’s a 6-week old kitten at the vet, having been hit by a car (she’s alright but scared and needs a home).  Would I take it?

Do these guys know I’m a sucker or what!?

Oh she’ll fall for me – yes indeed!

Yes, I am a pathetic sap but my priority is Jangles.  I will not give her a home but I will foster her and find her a home (falling for that?  No?  Didn’t think so).  BC (Basket Case hubby) reacts as usual.  The eyes roll in exasperation.  The sigh is heavy.  We’re too busy.  We’ve got too many animals.  We have to find Jangles.  Finally, I get the expected “oh, alright, we can go past and see her.  Then we’ll decide”.

Nothing ever changes.  We get there, he picks her up, says her name is Saragon (what???) and we are keeping her.  Nice to have consistency in life.

So, is it Pixels or not?

We are not, necessarily, falling for his pleas to keep her.  It all depends on her interactions with the other members of this zoo.  She is, however, cute as a button and worming her way into my heart at a steady speed – who’d have thought?

So, here’s where you guys come in.  Saragon – it sounds like Sarah-Gone.  How can you name a cat as “gone”?  Apparently Saragon is some fantastical dragon.  I care not!  So, with a few bats of the eyelashes and other womanly wiles, he resigns and says she will then be Pixels.  OK – that’s definitely cuter and, being a Tortoise Shell, probably quite appropriate.

Say What?

What do you guys think?  Does she remain Pixels or do you have any fantastic, clever, cute and adorable names to add to the list? 

My search for Jangles continues and all leads remain as valuable as ever.  Come home sweet Jangles.  Pixels or not, she only stays if you say it’s OK and I need you here to decide that.

Come home baby girl – please!

Nothing like a Mothers Love

No matter the sadness, fear, illness or otherwise, I simply cannot (or will not) stay depressed.  It bothers and annoys me and there’s simply too much good out there to share.  So, onto a better story, whilst we await the return of Jangles.

This one is definitely worth reading:

Clinging on for dear life to the side of a vertical cliff, the tiny lion cub cries out pitifully for help.

Lion Cub having fallen down a nasty precipice

His mother arrives at the edge of the precipice, with three other lionesses and a male.  The females start to clamber down together but turn back, daunted by the sheer drop.  Eventually,  one single factor determines which of them will risk her life to save the youngster – motherly love.

Who’s brave enough for this rescue?

The drama begins:  The mother arrives at the edge of the cliff as her son cries out for rescue, after being trapped when he slipped.

On the brink:  Four lionesses look over the edge, before aborting their rescue mission because of the sheer drop.

Slowly, agonisingly, the big Mother cat edges her way down towards her terrified son, using her powerful claws to grip the crumbling cliff side.

The undying love of a mother, risking life and limb for her baby

One slip from her and both animals could end up dead at the bottom of the ravine.

Just as the exhausted cub seems about to fall, his mother circles beneath him and he is snatched up in her jaws.

It’s an equally dangerous climb back up but a Mothers Love will never fail

She then begins the equally perilous journey back to the top.

Minutes later, they arrive and she gives the frightened creature a consoling lick on the head.

A Mothers kiss can fix everything!

The dramatic rescue, captured by wildlife photographer Jean-Francois Largot, was played out in Kenya’s Masai Mara game reserve.

This story was emailed to me and I immediately realised that it epitomised the lengths to which I will go to for the safe return of Jangles.  This mothers love is just as strong.  I simply had to share it.

Dog-Tired from Cat Hunt

Before I even begin, I need to send out a most massive Thank You to all my wonderful Blog Friends for having shared, reblogged, prayed and generally sent good wishes and positive thoughts our way.  I cannot even begin to show my gratitude appropriately.

Jangles – Still Missing

Unfortunately, I still have no good news regarding Jangles.  I am following every lead.  I am out every night, until the early hours of the morning, calling and searching.  Exhaustion is setting in and I now find myself rather ill.  Who knows, maybe I would have got this infection whether Jangles was here or not but I doubt that the stress has helped any.

I cannot believe that I’m posting such a downer.  I spend my time trying to find the positive side of Animal Welfare and rescue but “Limbo” is a hard place to be.  I search everywhere but I have no idea if I am close to her or not.

So, in a continued attempt to find my beautiful cat Jangles, here are the photos again.

I’m still missing and I long for my comfortable bed

We know she is somewhere in South Africa (I know cats can travel but I’d be most surprised if she got out of the country).  I also assume she is still in Johannesburg, based on the above premise.  Most likely still somewhere in the Northern Suburbs and hopefully somewhere between Bryanston (where she escaped from her run at the cattery) and Craighall, if she is trying to make her way home.

Oh to be this happy again

Any leads will be followed in my desperate attempt to find her.  She is a nervous cat, having had a really hard life before joining us and she really deserves her creature comforts now.  Please, please, please help in any way you can think of.

My love and good wishes to you all.

+2784-244-2208

susan@dcrprocess.co.za

It may be absurd but it’s worth a try

Probably 90% of my readers are from the international community, which makes this a rather desperate attempt.  However, based on the “six degrees of separation” principle, I am hoping that this truly phenomenal blogging community could do me the ultimate favour of passing this information to anyone they know.

Jangles – my missing beautiful girl

My dear, previously abused and, therefore, terribly frightened cat, Jangles, somehow managed to escape from her run at the cattery / boarding facility in which she was staying whilst I was away.  Being the scared cat that she is, it is highly unlikely that she will approach a stranger.  However, I am putting out her photograph here, in the hope that someone, somewhere, knows a person who might have seen her scurrying under bushes.

Please help me find Jangles.

Jangles was at a facility in Bryanston, Johannesburg, South Africa.  I have been in the area every day, calling for her.  She will be scared and hungry and I am desperate to find her.

Please could everyone pass this information to anyone they can think of and, if I am lucky enough that someone knows her whereabouts, they can contact me on susan@dcrprocess.co.za or +2784-244-2208

Jangles thanks you for any help you can give

I wish this could have been a fun, light-hearted “Happy New Year” post but I fear those will have to wait until I find my baby girl.

Jangles would like to find her bed again.

I thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.

Jittery Jangles – Supermodel? I think so!

What do you think?

Scaredy Cat Jangles – Continued

I’m starting to think in Blog!  Is this normal, seeing everything in small bite sized pieces of information to put into the next post?  I fear I have joined the ever growing STS (society of the insane). I must admit, though, I rather enjoy the company here. My ever growing hoard of furry critters don’t seem to mind either. They are rather enjoying the attention.

So Jangles arrives at home and I am excited beyond belief. What does she do? She disappears underneath the bed for weeks on end. Not quite how I had anticipated this to go. She had her own room and we gave her space to settle but the poor thing was so frightened and traumatized that it took weeks before we could even get to pet her. The fact that a dog existed in the house certainly didn’t help matters, although we kept them well apart. Just a point regarding what her previous home must have been like, remember I said she was returned to Cat-A-Holics because she was “weeing in the wrong places”? Well, even in her most fearful state, she has done nothing but use the litter tray to perfection! Makes one think, doesn’t it?

So sad, the most beautiful cat in the world, with a hugely loving personality, too scared from past experiences ever to be seen by anyone but my husband and myself.  However, although that still remains the fact and, even though it has taken over a year and half’s worth of patience, she has come out of her shell remarkably. She has finally realized that play time is just great and love is the best thing ever!. Funnily enough, the only other person whom she allows to touch her is my “I’m not a cat person” Dad. From his side, not a visit goes by without him saying “I just have to go and find Jangles to say hello”.  Hmm, I think he might just be a convert.

Scaredy Cat Jangles

It’s official – I am hooked, I’m addicted.  Not that I’m proud of the fact but, to all the teachers in my past who lamented my unwillingness to ever finish anything, guess what, when I was created, God knew that Blogging was going to exist.  It never is finished – purrrrfect!

For my entire conscious life, I have wanted a cat.  Dad always said “No”, very firmly.  He professed not to like them!  How can that be possible?  They certainly like him well enough.  Anyway, the next rescue entering the mayhem of my zoo household was, of course, a cat.  Sorry Litchi (remembering that she’s so scared of them, they actually get to chase her), nothing like baptism by fire. In typical style, I had to choose the one least likely to find a home.  Plus, she was the only truly unhappy cat at Cat-A-Holics, the shelter at which I was volunteering at the time.  I don’t know why she originally landed up in the shelter but, being the great people they are, they had found her, what they believed to be, a good new home.  Problem was, the husband there didn’t appear to agree.  The poor cat was brought back again because he said that she “weed in the wrong places”?!?!

Now this poor adult cat had experienced some or other trauma that got her to the shelter in the beginning, then landed up in an un-supportive home and was back at the shelter again. Where the other shelter cats at Cat-A-Holics tend to be content and happy (it really is designed to ensure that they not only have a place to live out their lives but decent lives at that), this poor beauty was truly miserable.  I couldn’t leave her there. She was destined to become my next learning curve.

I had started working there in order to help increase my knowledge of cats (having grown up with and studied dogs, I felt it important to volunteer with cats, rather than dogs, in order to broaden my knowledge). 

And so it was that Jangles – name chosen by mad husband (no idea why – the name that is, not the fact that he’s mad) – entered my life.  My all new traumatised, scaredy cat had found her place in life and, despite his previous philosophies, my Dad’s heart.  Guess who’s the first person to leave all the Bipeds to go searching her out whenever he visits?

Jangles’s story to follow in future blogs.  Thanks for staying tuned