About ten days before Christmas 2020 I had a call about a mother cat and two kittens being seen in a village on the outskirts of Kilmarnock. Of course, tracking them down and catching them was never going to be straightforward (!!) and it took several days and flyers through doors before the two kittens were finally caught on December 23rd. It was bitterly cold so I and some caring humans who lived in the area were very glad indeed that the babies were finally coming into a warm environment. However, their mother was still out there and she needed to be found too. Thankfully, someone who had had one of the flyers through the door phoned just a few hours after I got the kittens back here to say the wee love was being seen in one particular garden so off I went (having learnt my lesson the hard way over the previous days) wrapped up to the eyeballs against the bitter wind in gear that would have made Ernest Shackleton look seriously underdressed on his forays to the Antarctic. But I needn't have bothered with those 27 layers of thermals, 26 would have been quite sufficient, because that wee mum was there and in my trap within half an hour or so of my arrival! The whole family went into the care of brilliant fosterers who set about the often demanding task of getting them used to human company and losing the fear. In time, both kittens, Buttercup and Clover, were homed together but their mum, Dakota, is still looking for her Forever home.

Dakota's fosterers, Morven and Stewart, have done so well with Dakota and although she will let them stroke her if they wear gloves (which are less scary than human flesh) she remains a shy wee soul with anyone else. We don't know if she was born on the streets or if she was abandoned, but either way there can be no doubt she has had a hard time with no reason to see most humans as friends. Of course, animals being fostered don't know they're being fostered and Dakota, despite her shyness, does consider Morven and Stewart as her family just the same as the more confident ones think they've found 'home' with their fosterer carers.

It's really hard to find the right homes for cats like Dakota, and she's not the only such cat in our long-term care. They become used to a level of domesticity and the comforts and security that offers them, so they aren't suited to life on a farm or in any other totally outdoor situation. On the other hand, finding people with the patience to accept them as they are and who will have the sense not to imagine these shy cats will be settling down for a knee cuddle any time soon (if at all) is extremely difficult. Having said that, we have found the most AMAZING homes for many shy cats over the years, many with the brilliant help offered by CatChat, and they've worked because the people were accepting and caring. However, there have been instances where we have been convinced by someone that they "totally understand" why a cat may be shy for a while (even much less shy than Dakota) and that they will give them the space and time to feel safe in a new environment, only to hear them complaining a couple of days (sometimes hours) later that "this cat is still shy! When is it going to stop hiding?!" and back the cat or kittens come.

I'm hoping that out there somewhere there is an experienced cat person (please God, more than one because we have more than one cat needing such people), who has the right mindset to offer the right kind of home to Dakota and to others just like her. Those are the people who look for what they can give to an animal who has had a bad time or start in life rather than those looking for a cat to cuddle up on a knee. A home with older children or teenagers may be a consideration but so much depends on the ;ifestyle of the family. Access to a safe outdoor space is a must for when Dakota is very well settled, and that could take months rather than weeks.