Cat Pap: Tongue-man

Last week, after 6 months of being an 'indoor cat', Poppy was microchipped and had her emergence into the outside world. We were excited to see how she would react to all the other cats that live around us, but we didn't expect her to start attracting strays.

This guy (nicknamed Alfie) turned up on our back doorstep on day two of Poppy's outdoor life, meowing loudly and being generally adorable. We'd never seen him before, and were puzzled as to why he was so thin when he had a collar on. He rolled around for a bit, had what the Welsh call a 'smooth' (stroke, to you and me) and showed us his tongue.

Now Alfie's been visiting almost every day. He's quite persistent and will often sit outside for hours with his tongue poking out. If you open the door when he's been sleeping he'll open his mouth to meow, but a quack comes out instead. Our neighbour says he's a stray, and their neighbour is feeding him and looking after him, while trying to find out who he belongs/belonged to. Poppy's even grown to like and accept him, allowing him to come half a foot away from her before getting a hiss. Friends? Possibly.

I'll keep you updated on what happens to Alfie (whether he's a he or a she we're not sure, but Alfie fits for now). It'll be a shame to see him go, but I'd like to know he has a home. Who knows, maybe we could find space for another mog here...