baby human again and it wasn't so good, because the baby chased me all round the room. I hid behind the woman but the baby grabbed my tail again and pulled it hard and I must have hit the baby again. Then the woman slapped me hard and I hid in the corner of the room. Then she picked me up, grabbing hold of my fur at the back of my neck, and she put me back in my room.
I wondered when she'd let me out again but she didn't. I had food and my box and my dirt tray and I thought I'd just wait it out until she wasn't mad at me any more. It was a boring night, except that one of the other humans (a smaller one) came and picked me up and hugged me. She was holding me tighter than I wanted but it wasn't too bad. Then I got short of breath so I struggled a bit, and the small human let me go and sat down suddenly. Then she started crying, and I pressed my nose against her face. She was really upset and I didn't know why.
9
Remember when I said about the worst day of my life? Today was worse than that. I am so miserable I don't know what to say. I just lie in my cage staring at the wall. Why am I back in my cage?
My new humans just stuffed me in my box, put me in their box with wheels and took me straight back where I'd come from. As soon as I saw where I was I just howled. They put me in a new cage by the wall and shut the wire door, and I stopped crying. Instead I just lay where I was, too sad to say anything. Now I know why the other cats I saw when I first came here could just sit there and not say a word; you could tell they'd given up. And so have I.
10
11
I'm sorry I scratched the baby human! But I really thought she might have given me more of a chance. I lay around in my cage again and cried to myself in the smallest voice I could manage. I'm so unhappy I could scream, but I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. There are plenty of new cats coming in and they've had to put more cages in here. They're scared and sad and everything I was before. And now I'm one of the cats who just stares at the wall. Sigh.
12
Still staring at the wall.
13
Stared at the wall all day. They brought some new cats in, but I don't care.
14
Not as bad as yesterday. The cat in the next cage is very kind. I don't remember him from before so he must be new, but he leaned forward and touched noses with me through the bars. I nudged his nose gently and he pushed a little harder and purred at me. I was so surprised I actually began to purr back at him. I hadn't purred for pleasure since my humans brought me here the first time. I don't think purring for the baby human counts. We just lay there, nose to nose with the bars between us and breathed in the smell of cat.
I like him. He doesn't talk much but he's sweet and loving and he tried to wash my face through the bars. It didn't work very well, but I did the same for him and we curled up and purred at each other. It's like when my friend Milo was here and it didn't feel so bad to have company. Then the humans in white coats saw us trying to wash each other's faces and they put me in his cage for a while. We washed each other properly and tried to play a bit, but there wasn't enough room.
15
My new friend and I played with each other a lot when they took us to the yard to have our run around. We played Chasey and Ambush and all the games I used to play with Stripy One and Two and Black Kitten. That was fun. Then they put us both in a new cage next to the wall. It's bigger than the other cages and there are two big boxes, one on top of the other. They put my new friend (I've started to call him Stripy Three) on top and I got the bottom one. I like this a lot better. We are both still sad but it's so much better to have a friend. Stripy Three is a bit smaller than me and he snuggles up to me and we fall asleep back-to-back. Sometimes one of us wakes up after a bad dream and the other one will wash his face. It makes it all seem bearable.
16
Played with Stripy Three and spent a lot of the day asleep. I seem to have my appetite back and, for the first time in ages, I actually finished all my food. I love Stripy Three. He is a very sweet cat. What will happen if one of us gets picked and the other one doesn't? I had a nightmare about that and he washed my face all over and told me not to worry.
17
Stripy Three got picked. Three small humans came to see us with their mum and they ran their hands over both of us and they picked him. I looked sadly at the smallest human and she did the head-shake thing. I don't think she meant I was no good. She touched noses with me and I think she was sad. I think she was telling me, I'd love to take you too but we can only have one cat. He looked at me over his shoulder as they took him away and I think he said, Good luck! I climbed back into my box and crammed myself right up against the back wall of the box with my nose pressed to the cardboard, and I cried myself to sleep as softly as I could.
18
19
What an amazing day! My head is still spinning and I don't know what to say. In the morning they opened my cage (I was still in the same one) and they put somebody else in with me in the top box. So I got up and had a sniff. Girl Cat! I pushed my nose out below her box and this little black face looked down at me. For a moment I thought it was Black Kitten and I mewed at her. What was that? she asked me. I'm sorry, I thought you were Black Kitten! I explained. She put her little head on one side and said, Well actually I am black and I am a kitten; so couldn't I be Black Kitten?
Then the human in the white coat looked at me very forcefully and said something, running her paws around my new friend's face. I didn't understand the words, but it was fairly clear that she was asking me to look after the little black kitten because she's smaller than me and she needs a big brother to keep an eye on her. I can do that.
Maybe I haven't been picked because I'm a Bad Cat. If I'm a Good Cat somebody will pick me, maybe? So I touched noses with her and we got to know each other. She's very sore from her operation. She must have had it very recently, because you can tell she's in pain and it looks terrible. All her tummy is stitched up and she has lots of fur missing. Maybe that's why we didn't go out to the yard today, because she's still sick. I washed her face all over and she lay on her side with her little black paws folded across each other.
And I felt like I was being a mum. We had a meal together and she was a bit - well, unusual. She wolfed down all her food incredibly fast, and then the little trollop started on my bowl as well. I just stared at her and she looked back at me and said, What? And I said, Look, you just don't DO that! She ignored me completely and went on eating my food while I sat back and watched her. I found out why she
