Bloatermog New Pussy: In October, we took on a male cat named Charlie. He'd spent 2 years with son Steve's girlfriend (and their kids) and was a typical strutting Tom with an attitude.
Meanwhile, Steve's girlfriend bought another cat, a 'more homely' female, and grandson, Liam, named her Lucy.
We had Charlie a month before letting him out, which is recommended, and the second time of doing so, he vanished. 'Have You Seen Him?' notes around the immediate neighbourhood brought a couple of possible sightings, but no actual Charlie. Steve, Jane and I were devastated.
At the run up to Xmas, Lucy started knocking the tree down at Steve's girlfriend's; so we took her on for 3 or 4 weeks, but when the time came it was felt she'd be happier with us, bearing in mind Liam's sister, Amy, was just under 1 at the time.
Lucy is a typical loopy kitten, and tearing around and jumping up at things as she does, she knocked her tail out of joint, and a right-angled tail looked very odd, and she made a lot of painful noises over it, too. 5 months old, she needed the appropriate jabs and signing on at the vet, so we did that and had her tail looked at at the same time. The vet recommended an x-ray, but to avoid two (£50 a time) anaesthetics, did we want her spayed at the same time? Jane had muttered about letting her have one litter as mother's make better adult cats (Queens), but put on the spot at the vets and without Jane there, I agreed to the spaying as I knew we wouldn't want to part with any of the kittens, and a houseful of cats isn't my idea of heaven.
With a shaved side and stitches, which she's just had removed, Lucy isn't quite as looney as she was before, so the op has calmed her down just a tad. She had parted, but not broken or fractured, a couple of bones in her hip, and after the vet had looked at her, it didn't happen again and it hasn't bothered her since.
So now Lucy's the new MotorCat; and she's all right.