Snehvide's Story |
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Snehvide (Snow White)
Snehvide was born on the 18th May 1995. We are not certain that this is accurate, as the records as to when she was brought in to KVO as a kitten are unclear. What is certain is that she was at KVO as a young cat in the December of that year. She was quite quickly homed (February 1996), but it was not successful as she kept on running away! She went to a home where the 16 year old boy wanted her but was too young to be responsible and his mother did not want her. She took to getting herself lost in a nearby kolonihave where she found a woman who would give her food. Three times the woman found her there and on the last time she did not take her back to her right home but instead rang KVO. It was decided that she had better bring Snehvide in and they would try to sort it out. In the end, they could get no sense out of the owner, and promises to call in and see about her came to nothing so a sad little cat was back there. We had seen her before she was homed, but only in passing as a rather shy, and very pretty little white girl with a blue patch on her head. That colouring is very prevalent, on Fyn especially, and it is sometimes referred to as the 'Viking cat'. So that was late March, and during the next three months she became more and more withdrawn. She spent most of her time in a radiator bed next to the office desk, and lost weight. We both felt very sorry for her and I said to Myrtle several times when we talked about the cats, "why don't we have her with us? We only have seven and we came with eight!" So finally, in the car on the way home one Friday and during that evening, we talked about her again and she said that she thought that it would be nice for us and the cat. So on Saturday the 20th July 1996 we brought her home. The rest of Saturday was spent with Snehvide finding various hiding places and eventually settling for under the sofa where the valances kept her out of sight. She was so quiet that some of the others did not even realise that she was there! I fixed her up with a litter tray, food bowl and water in the guest room toilet, but she was not interested in any of it. I did try to give her a little of the dry food near the sofa but only had any luck in getting her to eat with just a spoonful of 'findelt tun' - so much for only liking Science Diet! We did not press her to try and eat more and when we went to bed, we left her to wander around if she wanted to. Sunday started with her still not interested in any food, but after she tried everywhere with little soft "miaou's", I got her to understand where her litter tray was and sat with her while she used it. After that, no food still, but she kept coming out from under the sofa and trying a little more exploration. By the afternoon, she was coming to us if we called and were patient with her for long enough and even briefly sat on the sofa alongside us. By the evening she had been given her own catnip sack and had played with that and made little trips even as far as the conservatory. The cat doors of course had to be kept shut, so we were busy letting in and out all the cats, including what seemed like a horde of red ones (Rusty)! On the Monday morning, the overnight tinned fish had gone, but the biscuit was still there! She came out ready to talk and explore some more and as soon as I opened the mastering room door, she was in with me trying all the cat size gaps and spaces around the equipment. She still popped under the sofa for short periods, but was soon out and disappearing on explorations again. Every so often, throbbing purrs would start up under the sofa or she would come and demand some more strokes. At lunch time she had a little tinned meat away from the others so it looked as if sooner than we had any right to expect, she would be a completely happy, loving little cat again. When I started work again after lunch, I left her laying on the sofa where she had jumped up alongside me. Later, while we still let them all wander outside, she and Peter loved to chase each other all around, and people walking by would stop in amazement to see the two lovely white cats streaking to and fro. However, she also developed the 'stop out' habit with Peter and many times I had to play tag with a stalk of bamboo get her close enough to grab! To this day, she is still shy with the others, and since we had Omar and then Athos, she prefers to spend all her time in Myrtle's workroom with Misty. All night is spent on our bed with Misty and Peter! We are patiently trying over many weeks to get her again used to other cats, by leaving the hall door open for a short while each morning so that the other eight can visit her. Unfortunately, we cannot leave that door open without supervision, as Omar, Athos and Sille still tend to spray, and Myrtle definitely doesn't want that in her room!
Sometimes they are together in our cat run.
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