Psipsinos
Psipsinos
Written by Monday, 26 December 2011 00:00
| Article Index |
|---|
| Psipsinos |
| My Home, My Family |
| Page 3: Living and Loving |
| All Pages |
Meet the King of the castle: Psipsinos. A cat with presence, stature and a unique personality; a true lord and a gentleman. Most certainly the cat who changed our lives, our opinions and our home. But let us take things from the begining.
It was September 2003; on our return home one night we noticed a ginger cat sitting by our front door. We approached and the cat left. Nothing to write home about - yet in the days that followed the same cat appeared again and again. We had not seen him before and did not know if he lived in the area. The cat was sometimes on his own and sometimes accompanied by a tortie female wearing a pretty pink collar and a name disk in the shape of a heart. Clearly the female had a home, but what about the ginger male?
We were unsure what the cat wanted - if anything. He clearly occupied our porch while we were out but when we were approaching him he swiftly ran away. Over the following three weeks we realised he was waiting for our car to be parked; as soon as we were inside the house he was jumping on the bonnet and was making himself comfortable there. A couple of times we shooed him - and his little friend - off but this did not seem to deter him for long. The cat returned daily; when we saw him we eventually started greeting him in Greek, calling him Psipsinos (= Ψιψίνος (Gk) means puss, kitty).
We got so used to seeing him waiting for us every night that on the few occasions he was not there on our arrival we got worried about him. Looking out of the window we would see him shortly afterwards coming through the gate and jumping on the bonnet of the car. He would stay there for about half an hour, then leave. What was he up to?
By mid-October Psipsinos trusted us enough to let us approach him and by the end of October we were allowed to stroke him. On each occasion the cat would subsequently depart, some times hurriedly. Winter was closing in - and it was a cold one. On our return home one particularly cold evening Psipsinos did not run away after we stroked him; insted he waited until we opened the front door and run straight upstairs. We found him in the back bedroom totally curled up - to the point of hiding - in a duvet. We picked him up and took him outside - no way would we have a cat in the house! Psipsinos was very calm while we carried him downstairs. Next day - it was a Wedensday - he was waiting for us again. This time he did not get in the house but waited outside and followed us when we went to visit a neighbour. The cat patiently waited for us to finish our visit and walked back home with us. He was getting attached and so were we.
Friday night was freezing cold and Psipsinos run inside the house again. This time we found him curled under the radiator in the back bedroom. As we approached him he looked at us - it was a calm, requesting yet dignified look in his eyes. The weather outside was chilling to the bone; the cat stayed in.
At the time there was no cat food in the house; we offered him some water and meat but he did not touch either. He stayed inside for the whole weekend having neither water nor food. On the few occasions that we opened the door for him and called him downstairs he declined to respond. So we let him be.
Soon it was Monday morning and we had to go to work. Psipsinos was very quiet during the weekend - in fact he stayed in the back bedroom curled against the pillows on the bed. Nevertheless we felt we could not leave a 'stray' cat in the house on his own. As if he knew what we were about to do he went hiding under the bed. It took us a long time to catch him and take him outside. On the way back we got some tins of cat food just in case. Sure enough Psipsinos was waiting for us and run straight in 'his' bedroom. We offered him food and water and this time he obliged.
This became our routine on the run up to Christmas; Psipsinos was taken out of the house in the morning where he waited for our return. On our part we started returning home earlier. Rather than staying till 9 in the office we were taking work home - just to make sure the cat could get inside and be warm. We got him a little igloo type bed and placed it in the porch - that is where he stayed while waiting for our return. An enclosed litter tray - which he never ever used - and other 'cat' items (toys and a few bowls) also appeared in the house. Psipsinos stayed in the back bedroom and came to find us in our office when he needed to get outside; we opened the door and off he went. Strangely enough we intuitively knew when he returned and went to open the door - to find him there waiting. On the few occasions we did not get downstairs 'on time' we heard him calling us standing outside under the office window. The cat was getting to know our habits.
Christmas was fast approaching; Psipsinos knew something was afoot when he saw us carrying our suitcases to the front door. He hid; we had to find him and carry him out. On our return from holidays, three weeks later, one of our neighbours told us he spent most of the time sitting on the mat outside the front door. He appeared shortly afterwards and moved straight back in.
We spent another month together and we were leaving again, this time for the States. By that time it was heavy winter; thick snow was covering everything. Psipsinos was quietly living in our back bedroom; we had developed an understanding about going out and coming in times. When he needed to go out he meowed if he wanted us to wait for him by the door - he was straight out and straight back in like a flash. It was way too cold for walks. We were still determined not to have a cat in the house so we talked to a friend who did rescue work. She advised us to ask around to find if the cat belonged to someone. That is when we first found out that cats may have more than one home; it is part of their territorial behaviour.
In the meantime a couple of times the little tortie female friend of his also tried to come in the house. Surprisingly Psipsinos objected to it. The little girl did not insist and we did not see her since.
One Monday evening we started knocking on neighbours' doors asking if anybody owned a ginger cat. Soon after we got lucky: one of the neighbours informed us that the cat belonged to the family next door but was now unwanted and was left outside. She added pointedly that we should not allow him to come in our house; he had been trying for a while to get into people's houses but was kicked out. Psipsinos was considered a nuisance and was treated rough.
The family that owned Psipsinos confirmed this was the case. Psipsinos and his sister (the little tortie female with the pretty pink collar) were unwanted due to a change in their circumstances. They told us that they were planning for a while to try to rehome them but they somehow had neglected it. We asked them to take the cats in and look after them for the week we would be away and promised to get them rehomed ourselves on our return. They agreed, but did not do it. On our return Psipsinos was waiting again on our doorstep, visibly thinner and very cold. We were happy to see him alive and walked together inside the house. Regrettably there was no sign of his sister.
We contacted again the family to inform them that Psipsinos would be living with us for a while and ask them to bring us his sister too next time they saw her; apparently she was still visiting, asking for food. They promised they would; that is when we learned Psipsinos's story .(1)
Psipsinos was born on the 3rd of September 1998. He was adopted at the age of 8 weeks, together with his little sister; the two kittens were called Mulder and Scully after the main characters in the television series The X-Files. Scully was a true naughty tortie; a huntress with a beguiling personality, demanding and getting all the attention. She was the one that would smooch, sit on laps and give kisses but also do all sort of naughty things, including minor damages. Mulder (Psipsinos) on the other hand was more quiet and aloof. When the cats were about a year old they were attacked and physically abused by a gang of teenagers: Scully ended up with multiple fructures and had to wear a disc for 6 months. Mulder (Psipsinos) managed to get away but remained traumatised for the rest of his life: he was always obviously concerned and extra cautious when young people were around and on occasions he avoided them completely.
When the cats were three years old, following a series of events, they became essentially homeless. Dried food was provided for them in the garage on occasions. Psipsinos was convinced that this was due to Scully's naughty behaviour and this explains both why he did not want her in his new house and his behaviour in the house later on. The cats lived rough for two years, during which time they were both trying to find a new home (hence the vetting of houses and the attempts to get inside). For Psipsinos finding a new home was essential: having being born with a heart murmur he was particularly sensitive to cold. To keep warm the cats worked out the times that neighbours arrived home after work. They went and sat on the bonnet of each car when it had just been parked to warm up from the warmth of the engine. It is a crying shame that their efforts to survive often resulted in both of them being physically hurt by the owners of the cars. Nevertheless that is how we met Psipsinos; as we were the last to arrive home from work, Psipsinos and Scully visited us last and stayed longer. When the car engine cooled down the young cats were finding refuge from the elements in our our porch which is open at the front.
During the time he was living rough Psipsinos survived two life threatening incidents: he was clipped by a car and he was locked in a garage for ten days. He survived the latter by drinking water from a bowl provided to cool down a rusty saw.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|